They also talked to Andrey Popov, chief of the domestic policy board, which helps the president to enforce constitutional powers. How the president comes in touch with his foreign counterparts and how decisions are made on the country's policies on the world scene were reported by Dmitry Spirin, chief of the office of the president's aid on foreign politics.
Natalia Timakova, head of the information board, dwelt on the Kremlin press-service which is responsible not only for making the president's decisions public but for informing the president of the main events on the world scene.
When rallied in the Kremlin's Catherine Hall, the students asked questions ranging from personnel recruitment for the president's office to the security of the president's Internet site to the fate of officials forced by the president to retire.
Youth Crossroads forum delegates told the Kremlin staff about one of their accomplished projects, that is a youth model of the Council of Europe. This Council generalised proposals from students and worked out an appeal to the president of Russia which was handed to Vyacheslav Surkov during the meeting in the Kremlin to be conveyed to President Putin.
The appeal urges developing the ideas of unity, tolerance and openness. Schoolchildren suggested that the president seek to remove all barriers on the way of young people's free communication. One of their suggestions was to set up a Russian-French service of free exchanges. Mention was also made of European security, ecological issues and undergraduate education. In the opinion of the students, all armed clashes and manifestations of terrorism are caused by the conflict of interests, poor knowledge of other peoples' cultures, unwillingness to listen to and understand each other. But most of the problems can be settled if there are common economic interests and close cultural links. Vyacheslav Surkov promised the forum participants to convey this appeal to the president.
Afterwards, there was a Kremlin tour and presentation of gifts. Surkov said with a smile: "We are a profit-free organisation-therefore our gifts are rather modest." On behalf of the Russian president's staff, he wished the young people good luck in any sphere of their future activities.
