Participation in state movement of children and youth should be voluntary - Putin

KALINNGRAD. Sept 1 (Interfax) - Participation In the all-Russian state movement of children and youth should be available to everyone, but not mandatory, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

"The new movement should not become a privilege of the residents of big cities where it is easier to organize and get something running, it should still be present everywhere, wherever kids are growing: small towns, villages and the farthest of our territories," Putin said told the movement's supervisory board in Kaliningrad on Thursday.

He said it was necessary to think through all matters relating to the movement's infrastructure for children to gather and realize their projects and ideas. "The key principle of the movement is the voluntariness of participation; it is, of course, no place for some kind of must-do, this should be ruled out absolutely. A child should join the movement because he is interested, not because someone offered him or recommended, let alone forced [him], this would be totally inappropriate," Putin said.

The movement should be oriented towards the best educational programs, which quite recently appeared and successfully went through generations, such as practicing good deeds for those around you, for those in need, the president said.

As well as Russian schoolchildren, the movement should welcome children from the Luhansk and Donetsk people's republics, he said.