On April 4, 2016 a press conference on preparations for the annual Icebreaker Festival at the beginning of May this year was held in the media center of the Saint Petersburg Government.

The press-conference was attended by the Executive Secretary of the Maritime Council under the Saint Petersburg Government Tatiana Chekalova, Deputy Director for Navigation Safety of the North-Western Basin Branch Andrey Balashov, Head of the FSBI “Administration of the seaports of the Baltic Sea” Petr Parinov, and other officials.

The participants of the event discussed the draft festival program, which will be held on May 2-3  at the Lieutenant Schmidt Embankment and the English Embankment.

Andrey Balashov spoke about the importance of the icebreaker fleet for Russian freezing seaports, the latest achievements in the field of shipbuilding, in particular, about the replenishment of the North-Western Basin Branch Fleet with two new diesel-electric icebreakers, Vladivostok and Murmansk. Besides, Andrey Balashov told which icebreakers of the Branch would participate in the festival this year and what festival guests would be able to see and learn after visiting the icebreakers.