On Thursday, October 26, the President of Russia Vladimir Putin held the meeting with young specialists of the Rocket and Space Corporation “Energia”. Among the participants of the meeting, there was a senior student of Samara University Ilnar Khairullin, who is doing traineeship at the Corporation.

The young man asked the state leader a question, raising the issue of foreign graduates’ employment at enterprises of the domestic aerospace industry.

“At Samara University, there is the Institute of Aviation and Space-Rocket Engineering, where both citizens of the Russian Federation and citizens of other countries from Central Asia, Africa, and South America study. These young people come to us halfway around the world, study, complete bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, participate in scientific competitions, volunteer actions, but after graduation, they cannot continue working in the field of aerospace, because there is no such industry in their countries”, Ilnar Khairulin described the current situation and added, “My proposal is as follows: since their countries haven’t been able to produce space technology yet, but at the same time the graduates are enthusiastic people, why not apply their talents in Russia? This is what NASA does, gathering teams of foreigners, and they develop their local projects. For example, it may be creation of small spacecraft for their countries. Or they can just process orders”.

“Good idea! It is necessary to engage the talented youth. Of course, to engage them”, the state leader agreed with Ilnar. “It is we, who should engage young talented specialists. Why not? Really good idea. No doubt about it; moreover, the people have arrived, they have been living at our country for several years, so they know the language. Of course, it is applicable only to really talented young people who are passionate about this type of activity, well, of course, yes. Furthermore, since they were sent from other countries, we can think about how we can build relationships in this area with our partners so that they did not lose these specialists forever. Thanks for the idea. We must definitely do this”.

At the meeting, the President and young scientists and engineers discussed the future Russian orbital station, building a multi-satellite constellation, the lunar program, development of private cosmonautics. Among other issues raised, there were the Roscosmos employees’ salaries, improvement of life quality in closed localities where specialists work, and development of preferential mortgage programs for employees of the aerospace industry.