The famous Artek children's camp became the property of the Crimean Republic on Thursday in accordance with the decision of the State Council of Crimea on March 18. The children's camp is one of 136 businesses and properties to be nationalised in Crimea. The camp has a rich history with some famous dignitaries attending the camp over the years, including Fidel Castro, Kwame Nkrumah, Yuri Gagarin and Paul Robeson. Igor Leli, the acting director of Artek camp, said he feels assured the camp will be a success and will run all year round as a consequence of nationalisation. Artek had run into some financial problems in the late 2000s, when Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada (parliament) had to write off a substantial debt. The camp is located in the town of Gurzuf, 12 km from the well-known South Coast spa resort - Yalta. Artek occupies a territory of 208 hectares, 102 of which are parks. Artek's coastline spreads for seven km from Ayu-Dag ("The Bear Mount") to the town of Gurzuf. Over the decades, Artek has grown from a small tent camp set up in 1925 into a huge camp made up of 10 smaller camps with a well-developed infrastructure. The record number of children to attend the centre in a year was in 2010 when 35,000 attended. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Ruptly Twitter: http://twitter.com/Ruptly LiveLeak: http://www.liveleak.com/c/Ruptly Google Plus: http://plus.google.com/111498286331086224967 Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/Ruptly YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/RuptlyTV Video on Demand: http://www.ruptly.tv

• published: 21 Mar 2014
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