Maths teacher asked to remove ‘Putin more powerful than Medvedev’ problem

LONDON - A Russian teacher, who unintentionally suggested Vladimir Putin was more powerful than Dmitry Medvedev in a mathematics problem, has been asked to remove it from the Internet.

Grigory Chepichev, who lives in Saint Petersburg, posed the problem for children in his mathematics club.

“(Russian President Dmitry) Medvedev must guess the number imagined by (Prime Minister Vladimir) Putin or he will be fired from his post as president. How can he save his position?” the Telegraph quoted the problem as saying.

The problem nonetheless seems to have raised eyebrows and Chepichev said he had removed it from the club’s website on Wednesday “at the request of the authorities.”

“There was nothing political in this mathematical problem, which I invented with my colleagues for the children. It’s simply to make the problems more fun, more interesting for the students,” he said.

In full the mathematical problem read as follows: “Vladimir Putin names three two-digit numbers, a, b and c. Dmitry Medvedev has to in turn name three other numbers, X, Y and Z.”

“Putin then gives him the sum aX+bY+cZ. Medvedev must guess the answer, otherwise he is sacked from the presidency.” (ANI)