The President toured the Primorye Oceanarium together with President of the Republic of Korea Park Geun-hye and Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe. Students of Gymnasium No. 2 in Vladivostok were also present at the ceremony, after the President invited them to the opening of the Oceanarium while visiting the school on September 1. The Primorye Oceanarium science and education centre will become one of the world's largest facilities of its kind.

Photo: Shinzo Abe and Vladimir Putin at the opening of the Primorsky Oceanarium.

The idea of creating an oceanarium on Russky Island belongs to Vladimir Putin. In 2005, the head of the Russian Federation signed the necessary papers, thereby launching the construction of the Primorsky Oceanarium. It is noteworthy that the design was also chosen by the president.

Photo: Vladimir Putin visiting the Primorsky Oceanarium in 2013.

Its total area of the Primorsky Oceanarium is about 35,000 square metres. The main building houses display aquariums with total capacity of 10,000 cubic metres, themed installations, a 70-metre-long underwater tunnel with a moving track, a dolphinarium, and a dolphin therapy department.

The aquarium of the complex is filled with 24 tons of water.

The Oceanarium can accommodate 15-18 thousand of sea species that are representing 500-600 different kinds of living organisms.

Initially, the construction of the oceanarium was planned to be completed by the APEC-2012 summit, but in two years (the Primorsky Oceanarium was built only in 2010), the structure could not be brought to an ideal state. Vladimir Putin took the construction of the facility under his own control and more than once came to the Russky Island with checks.

The Oceanarium was completely built in 2015. It was planned that its official opening would take place in June this year, but the event was postponed to September.

It is known that the funds for construction were received by Konstantinovskiy charity fund.

Initially it was planned to invest 8 billion rubles to the Oceanarium, but during the construction it became clear that the amount would be more solid - 19.5 billion rubles.

In the spring of this year, Oleg Shishov, taking part in the construction of the oceanarium, was sentenced to imprisonment in the case of embezzlement of 1 billion rubles.

Transneft company transferred 8.5 billion rubles for the construction of the Primorsky Oceanarium to the Konstantinovsky Foundation.

The national scientific center of marine biology will be constructed on the basis of the Oceanarium in the future. According to the plan of scientists and officials, it should become one of the largest scientific centers in the world.