Putin points out importance of census for Russia's economy

Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked all participants in the census for their important and effective work.

On Wednesday, the Russian leader met with the best census-takers.

According to the President, their work "was hard in today's living conditions and even dangerous in some regions, in the North Caucasus and Chechnya".

"You needed many positive qualities to establish dialogue with people and gain their confidence," the president noted.

According to him, the final census results have not been summed up yet, however, it is already clear that this is a unique material, which will help "properly fulfil social obligations and build economic programmes in the country". "As a matter of fact, much was done at random without this knowledge," Vladimir Putin said.

Therefore, these are not meaningless numbers but important information for planning Russia's development, he added. According to the president, census is important both from demographic and economic points of view.

The Russian President gave flowers and a small gift to Valentina Kazantseva, a census-taker from Chelyabinsk celebrating her birthday today.

Some participants in the meeting gave their presents to Vladimir Putin.

One of the census-takers asked the head of state to thank regional, municipal and local administrations for helping organise the census.

The president promised to do that at the meeting with governors two days later.