MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin has opened a website, www.uznai-prezidenta.ru, which is meant to explain the intricacy of the post of Russian presidency and the Kremlin, the official seat of the government, to school-age children, specifically those between eight and 13 years.

The site built on a proposal made by an 11-year-old girl, Veronika Petukhova, from Kaluga, who first floated the idea to Putin in June 2002, comprises five main sections — the Presidency, State, Lessons on Democracy, the Kremlin and Emergency Aid. On the site, three virtual kids, whose names come from Russian fairy tales, will take visitors on a Kremlin tour, give them lessons on democracy and basic facts about the state, and finally lead them to a photo gallery of Putin, his family and pets.

At the project’s opening, Putin said in televised remarks that the Website was not meant to publicize him personally. "Frankly speaking, I do not think that anything connected with my personality should dominate the site," Putin said. "After all, it is the information about the state, the rights and duties of its citizens that are paramount."

ITAR-TASS news agency quoted the site's designers as saying they did their best to avoid controversial interpretations of history in an interactive game, which allows children to offer their own views on historical events.