[Presenter] Today Kazan is 1000 years and one day old. Tatarstan's capital is celebrating its anniversary in a big way. There are more that 13,000 official guests there. Most of them, though, had a really packed working day today. An itinerary session of the Russian State Council which discussed the problem of delimitation of powers between the centre and the regions was held in Kazan. After that, the leaders of CIS member countries gathered at one table. [Passage omitted]
[Correspondent] At the moment the presidents are at the Musa Dzhalil state theatre where a solemn soiree devoted to the 1000th anniversary of Kazan is being held. Putin greeted the audience and astonished everyone. He had prepared an unusual and unexpected surprise. He started his speech in the Tatar language.
[Putin] Hello dear friends [A phrase in Tatar followed, applause]. I will venture, I will try to say these few words in the Tatar language.
[Putin speaks in Tatar, again interrupted by applause] This is not all I can do. [Continued in Tatar, more applause]
For those who are only beginning to learn the Tatar language and have not understood everything I said [laughter, applause], I would like to dwell on just one thought that was voiced right now. Kazan has played a truly unique historic role in the formation of the single Russian nation, in the emergence of the unified and cohesive Russian people. It's significant that according to one of the theories the name of the city is derived from the Turkic word of kazan, which means a cauldron. I will not elaborate on the semantic aspects of this but Kazan is indeed a place where a unique amalgamation of languages, traditions, customs and cultures of the peoples of Russia was going on for centuries. [Passage omitted]
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
____________________________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs