The high state decoration was awarded to nine large families from Bashkortostan, Daghestan, Crimea, Krasnoyarsk and Primorye territories, and Smolensk, Novgorod, Rostov and Sverdlovsk regions.

The Order of Parental Glory is awarded to parents and adoptive parents of seven or more children for their services to strengthening the institution of the family and raising children.

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, friends,

It is a pleasure to welcome you all here. Yesterday, as we know, was International Children’s Day, a holiday filled with goodness, light and joy. It is symbolic that today we are honouring large families and presenting fathers and mothers with this special state decoration – the Order of Parental Glory.

This decoration, as you know, is awarded in recognition of efforts to strengthen family foundations and traditions, exceptional services in raising children, and your much needed and noble labour as parents. This parental labour requires complete devotion and selfless generosity, constant care and attention for children.

We can all see the results of your work, share your joy and admire your big families and your children’s wonderful faces. I bow low before you and offer you my sincerest congratulations and best wishes.

The families here today come from very different parts of our country. Each family has its own life, history and fate, joys and sorrows. But you all share a common understanding of true values and a sense of mutual respect and love of course.

It is this that gives you strength and patience, warms you all from young to old, helps you to look after each other and create a truly welcoming home for birth and adopted children, and enables each of you to find your place at the big family table and in your parents’ hearts.

Families of this kind, based on solid traditions of continuity and selfless devotion are typical of our people and are Russia’s pride, the true supporting pillar of our country and the guarantee of our society’s moral health.

It is our sacred duty to preserve and support families. This is why all of our national development plans and projects are ultimately about strengthening families and creating better conditions in Russia for giving birth, raising children and affirming family values.

We see positive demographic trends today. The birth rate is rising, maternal and infant mortality are falling, and the number of families willing to take in and adopt children without parental care is increasing.

These results are not happy coincidence but are the fruit of the hard work that the authorities and people throughout our vast country have done. It is wonderful to see that this effort has not been in vain. Most important of all, it is wonderful to see that people have not lost their generous spirit and that we still have goodness, empathy, warmth and all the brightest and most noble human feelings and desires. Your big, friendly families and the feat you have achieved as parents are convincing proof of this.

This example can serve as inspiration to many. It gives hope and confidence in tomorrow and in a bright and prosperous future for Russia and its people.

Once again, I congratulate all of the families decorated with the Order of Parental Glory.

I wish you happiness, health, and success.

Thank you for your attention.

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Friends,

I want to congratulate you once more and congratulate all parents. Our country has far more parents than could ever fit in this hall.

I want to thank you from all my heart for your generous spirit, warmth, and the great cause to which you have devoted yourselves.

Thank you very much.

Hmm...after the missile shoot down of Malaysian flight 17, obviously by Russian backed (and Russian approved) separatists (with Americans killed, as reported) how are we, as Roman Catholics,  viewing Vladimir Putin now in light of this thread?