FIRST LADIES TURN OVER BOOKS FROM HOME LIBRARIES TO CHILDREN
ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
October 3, 2005 Monday 7:21 AM Eastern Time
Lyudmila Putin, the wife of the Russian president, and the wives of
the leaders of five other countries have turned over books from their
home libraries to Children’s s Homes in Russia.
Lyudmila Putin addressed her book collection to the Children’s Home
in the town of Blagoveschensk in Bashkortostan, First lady of Britain
Cherie Blair gave her collection to the Children’s Home in Troitsk
in the Chelyabinsk region, the wife of the Austrian president Margit
Fischer sent books to the settlement of Ishma in Komi, Zorka Pyrvanova-
the wife of the Bulgarian president, turned over her book collection
to the Children’s s Home in the Sverdlovsk region.
In return, the Russian Post Service has presented the first ladies
with a gilded model of the first stamp carrying the logotype of the”
Bibliobraz- 2005″ book festival. The new stamp is hoped to occupy its
own niche in world stamp collections as a rarity. Lyudmila Putin and
Russian Minister for Information Technologies and telecommunications
Leonid Reiman canceled the stamp at the ceremony,
“The idea to issue a stamp with the symbol of the “Bibliobraz” festival
occurred to us a year ago, but it was not simple to put the idea into
practice,” the wife of the Russian president said.
“Collecting stamps has always been her dream, and philately is one of
the most interesting hobbies,” Lyudmila Putin said. “I am glad that
we have got the stamp at last,” Mrs. Putin declared, saying she was
very proud of being honored to cancel the stamp.
Similar stamps cancelled and signed by Lydmila Putin and Leonid Reiman,
put into souvenir frames and enclosed into special envelopes, were
presented to the first ladies of Austria, Armenia, Bulgaria, Great
Britain, Kyrgyzstan and Russia who took part in the festival.