Mintimer Shaimiev: Alfia Avzalova and Ilgam Shakirov are the wealth of the Tatar people
15 January 2008, Tuesday
January 15, Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiev met with Tatar singer Alfia Avzalova at the Kazan Kremlin. The head of the republic congratulated the legendary singer on her 75th anniversary. He presented her with the highest award of Tatarstan – the order for “Services to the Republic of Tatarstan”.
“I express gratitude to Alfia Avzalova on behalf of all Tatar people for the outstanding contribution to the development and promotion of musical art. Alfia Avzalova and Ilgam Shakirov are our biggest wealth, it is them who showed what the special emotional tunefulness and harmony of the Tatar people is”, Mintimer Shaimiev said.
On 16 October in the Kazan Kremlin Tatarstan State Counselor Mintimer Shaymiev, who is also the Chairman of the Trustees Council of the regional Revival Fund, had a meeting with the Director General of the State Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky, who came to Kazan to take part in a ceremony of opening a new exposition “The Yusupovs. Luxury across the Centuries” at the Hermitage Kazan Exposition Center and which has been prepared especially for the 20th anniversary of the Hermitage’s first representational centre established in 2005 by celebrations of the Kazan Millennium.
On 28 August the Rais (Head) of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov and the State Counselor of the republic Mintimer Shaimiev took part in a plenary session of the National Assembly of the World Tatar Congress held with participation of about 1 thousand delegates from 68 regions of Russia and 27 foreign countries in the Tatar State Opera and Ballet Theatre in Kazan’
On 20 June the Rais (Head) of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov and the State Counselor of the republic Mintimer Shaimiev attended horse races held at the International Equestrian Complex in Kazan and dedicated to Kazan Sabantuy.
On 6 June the Rais (Head) of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov and the State Counselor of the republic Mintimer Shaimiev laid flowers to the monument of the Great Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin by the Jalil State Opera and Ballet Theatre in Kazan.