“And 28 applications from regions for opening,” added the head of Sberbank. At the same time, Gref emphasized in every possible way that “the project is very budget-friendly.” “All the equipment here today is produced by Sber,” Gref said, noting in passing that the Phillips monitors that Putin could see on the tables were leftovers from warehouses, and so the servers and monitors were all his own, which made it possible to greatly reduce the estimate . “In general, it’s not expensive. There are less than 2 thousand square meters here. m. Our largest school is in Moscow for 3 thousand engineers, there are only 4.5 thousand sq. m. m,” he added.

“The average training period is three years. The guys who complete their studies receive the highest qualifications. Of course, this gives new life to the regions,” the head of Sber explained the social significance of his brainchild.

After such a presentation, Gref hesitated somewhat, but still turned to Putin. “If, based on the results of your trip, you gave instructions to support …,” he said, immediately making the reservation that he had already coordinated his request with the presidential administration and discussed it with Putin’s assistant Maxim Oreshkin. “We need help from the Federation for campuses, for construction,” he finally asked directly.

“Fine. How many?” – Putin asked. His dialogue with Gref was interrupted by the governor of the Novgorod region, Andrei Nikitin, who said that in the case of his region, 300 million rubles were spent from the local budget, and Sber invested the same amount. “For all the schools that exist in the country today, within three years, if 3-4 billion rubles were allocated there, it would be enough. One school is usually several hundred million,” Gref confirmed. “If you allocate a billion a year, it will be great,” said the head of Sberbank.

“Okay, I pulled it out straight with pliers,” Putin remarked with a smile. And then, turning to the audience, he jokingly said: “German Oskarovich is ashamed to say that he is asking the Federation for a billion. So rich and asking for a billion. Just why didn’t he name the amount? He ashamed”. As if in self-defense, Gref hastened to justify himself. “We invested a lot of money in this,” he said. “I know, but an extra billion will not hurt from the federal budget. Okay, okay, German Oskarovich,” Putin promised federal assistance.

As a souvenir of your visit to the center

Having secured support for the School 21 project, Gref did not accompany the president during the entire excursion. “On a business trip,” the head of Sberbank asked Putin for leave. “Of course,” the head of state released him.

Some of the center’s students took the opportunity to ask permission to take a photo with Putin. The President agreed, clarifying that he was posing for one of the photographs specifically for the grandmother of a girl from the Tula region.

As a souvenir of his visit to the center, the head of state left a note on one of its glass partitions. “Good luck!” — Putin wrote, adding a signature and number to the wish.