OREANDA-NEWS. July 17, 2008.  Dmitry Medvedev visited the Museum of Fine Arts in Karelia, the Petrozavodsk Municipal Court and the regional centre for new information technologies of Petrozavodsk State University (PetrSU).

In the Museum of Fine Arts the President learned about applications for new information technologies, ranging from an Internet directory and other digital resources to the Museum's Workshop for Children, where various multimedia projects have been implemented. Here he was shown how information technologies are being introduced in the National Library of Karelia, which is available free online and whose site almost thousand people visit every day. Its electronic catalogue contains more than 840 thousand items in the public domain.

In the meeting hall of the Municipal Court the President learned about the automated state system called Public Justice and a system that enables court sessions to be held in a range of locations. He welcomed the idea of establishing such a system in every court.

In the Regional Centre of Information Technologies the head of state was told about the work of the IT-park, and also shown an education portal developed by the University of Karelia and an Internet portal designed for the Republic’s  authorities.

Dmitry Medvedev expressed the hope that soon Karelia will have the most advanced form of e-government, one that enables anyone with a complaint or request to go to the relevant site and track the status of the document that they have submitted to this or that government body.

The President chatted with students from the PetrSU software team, which has won the bronze medal two years in a row at the World Programming Championships. Dmitry Medvedev promised to meet with them again after the next World Championship.

In Russia in recent years the proportion of Internet users among the adult population has gone from 8 per cent in 2002 to 26 per cent in 2007. The level of penetration of cellphone networks is higher than the European average, and the number of personal computers per 100 households during these seven years has increased from 6 to 33.