Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed hope that Russia will continue its cooperation with the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) during a meeting with the president of the organization on Friday.

"The organization which you are heading is one of the world's most reputable ones in the field of cooperation on space research," the Russian leader said.

"We greatly hope that Russia will continue effectively working and helping all its partners, both Russian and from other counties, in your very hard but interesting and noble work," Putin told Giovanni Bignami, the president of COSPAR, while visiting the Cosmonautics Memorial Museum in Moscow.

Bignami thanked Vladimir Putin for Russia's support.

"As you know, a General Assembly of our organization will be held in Moscow very soon, in August," the president of COSPAR said.

There are a lot of young scientists preparing for COSPAR's 40th assembly, Putin said, adding that the event will "give a great impulse" to space research.

During his visit to the Cosmonautics Memorial Museum, the Russian President talked with the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) via a videoconference.

He congratulated the international crew on Cosmonautics Day, a holiday celebrated in Russia and some other former Soviet countries on the anniversary of Yury Gagarin's historic first manned space flight on April 12, 1961.

"I wish you luck and a successful return home to Earth," Putin said.

The Russian president and the COSPAR head also had a look at a model of the Russian space station Mir, which operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001. Mir, the first modular space station, held the record for the largest artificial satellite orbiting Earth until the construction of the International Space Station.

Source: RIA Novosti