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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends, good afternoon.

Today we celebrate the anniversary of the establishment of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service. I congratulate all the Rospotrebnadzor employees on this date.

It is marked on September 15, because formally this service was created in 1922, though we know – and you know this better than anyone – that its history is even longer: it began back in the times of Ivan the Terrible. I believe this was when the Apothecary Order was established.

I would like to thank all of you, as well as your colleagues in the regions of our vast country, for responsibly fulfilling your duties and effectively addressing tasks to protect consumers’ rights and people’s health.

Thanks to you, and to many generations of your predecessors – talented doctors and scientists – Russia has built a unique system of sanitary and epidemiological control. Today, it is recognised as one of the most advanced in the world and, importantly, it continues to evolve dynamically.

Its core principles – prevention and risk mitigation – remain the foundation of your work. Every day, you monitor the quality of the environment, water, air, and food. This work often goes unnoticed, yet it is of paramount importance. You promptly detect and counter dangerous infections, carry out vital scientific research, and implement advanced methods of monitoring and forecasting epidemics, thereby safeguarding people’s lives.

The coronavirus epidemic clearly demonstrated this. The well-coordinated, professional actions of Rospotrebnadzor specialists became a crucial part of the nationwide efforts to fight this dangerous disease.

The experience gained during that challenging period largely formed the basis for the federal project to create the so-called sanitary shield of Russia. Its primary goal is to protect people from new biological threats. I would like to ask Head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova to elaborate on what has already been achieved in this area.

Please, Ms Popova.

Anna Popova, Head of the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor): Mr President, colleagues,

Mr President, first of all I would like to thank you for this opportunity to report on our achievements on this very day – on our day. We have made good progress, because thanks to your support and attention our laboratory infrastructure and scientific institutions are developing at an accelerated pace.

Within the Rospotrebnadzor system – which, as you noted, was established many years ago – there are three tiers of response and laboratory support.

The first is the municipal, or inter-municipal, level. Today, we have more than 560 laboratories operating at this tier.

The second is the regional level, represented by large, well-equipped laboratories with significant capabilities.

And the third level consists of our research organisations, which provide scientific research and support for the practical institutions and solutions. This component is of particular importance to us.

We have implemented a half of the Sanitary Shield programme, and we still have four years to go. I would like to report on the results of the first four years.

This large number of laboratories produce a lot of information, which is all digital today. We are working very quickly now: data from any laboratory device is available to us within just a few hours.

We have also expanded our laboratory capacity through mobile laboratories. These are now operating in 37 Russian regions, providing invaluable assistance in emergency situations and in remote areas of the country. They are also deployed in our four new regions – our historical regions. Our colleagues there are trained and capable of working effectively. Since the summer of 2022, our mobile laboratories have been ensuring epidemiological safety in Mariupol [the Donetsk People’s Republic] and Melitopol [the Zaporozhye Region], and they continue to operate there to this day, preventing any complications – a result that speaks for itself.

We have strengthened monitoring and sanitary-quarantine control at the borders. The system has been completely restructured and reinforced with mobile sanitary and quarantine control points wherever needed.

To be continued.