A final press briefing was held on September 8 on SibExpoCenter’s central square next to the displayed submersibles Mir-1 and Mir-2 to summarize the results of a large-scale multiyear project, the “Mirs in Baikal” Scientific Research Expedition, organized by the Fund for Protection of Lake Baikal.
The briefing was attended by:
         V.Y. Dorofeev, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Irkutsk Region;
         М.V. Slipenchuk, Head of METROPOL Group of companies, Chairman of the Fund for protection of Lake Baikal;
        A.M. Sagalevich, Chairman of the Fund’s Technical Council, Head of Laboratory of Shirshov Oceanology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Hero of Russia;
        А.К. Tulokhonov, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Baikal Institute for Nature Management of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences;
        О.Y. Gaikova, Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Irkutsk Region;
        B.D. Tsyrenov, Director of the Fund for Protection of Lake Baikal (the briefing’s moderator).
Participants in the briefing presented the main results of the scientific research and discoveries, and spoke of the research program, unique representatives of Baikal’s fauna and historical artifacts discovered on the lake bottom, and the scientific and national significance of the expedition.
Representatives of the Administration of the Irkutsk Region made a special emphasis on the expedition's importance for the regional research institutes and the role it plays in wide popularization of scientific research.
The project’s organizers dwelt on the expedition’s mission, its significance for the development of the Russian fundamental science, the achieved results and long-term plans of the Fund for Protection of Lake Baikal, which had organized this project according to international standards. Special thanks were expressed to all partners of the expedition, as well as those structures and organizations that had rendered their support to the project (including the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Republic of Buryatia, the Administration of the Irkutsk Region, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Fundamental Research Fund, the Russian Geographic Society, etc.). The speakers also presented the expedition participants, including notable scientists from eight European, Asian and American countries, state officials, representative of the federal and regional mass media, as well as public and cultural figures.