My meeting with the voters was very intense, as always. People came in with their problems - some big, some small, but all of them at “boiling point” – things that they simply haven’t been able to resolve in the usual way.

They were mainly pensioners, disabled people and staff from general-education and sports schools. They were asking for help with equipment for schools, buying sports gear, building a swimming pool, hospital repairs, housing renovation and getting hold of medication.

I was really pleased to see people taking a broad view when they try to tackle their own problems. They suggest making changes to the law and amendments that will affect everyone facing the same problem. For example, I was visited by two women who had spent 25 year working as PT instructors in a kindergarten. These women had lost their early retirement rights simply because their work record books contained the words”physical training instructor” rather than “physical education leader”. They proposed changing the law to expand the list of job titles equivalent to “physical education leader”.

So by solving problems for individual voters you can help hundreds of others with the same problems. I think that’s terrific.

There were also some everyday issues. For example, one of my voters complained that civil servants didn’t take State Standards seriously and suggested introducing a Unified State Examination for civil servants.

But the surgery wasn’t all about discussing problems and difficulties. The director of the oldest school in Nizhnekamsk thanked me on behalf of her pupils for some equipment for their physics classroom. And a woman I had been able to help who had lost her job one year before getting her pension also came in to say thanks. In contrast to our previous meeting, she looked great - she was in high spirits and I was sincerely happy for her.

And there was one very moving moment. There was a little girl who I’d helped to get a very important operation in good time (there are some operations to do with the hearing and speech organs that need to be performed before a certain age or else the child will have serious
problems with speaking). This little girl came to see me with a big bouquet of flowers and said (!!!): “Many thanks, Alina!”. For me this was a victory and a great joy.

In fact, it’s a great joy to realize that you’ve helped to change the life of a small human being for the better.