Churin thanked Sokolov for the Order.

      As the company's CEO, Alexander Churin, noted on his Telegram channel, the wording of the decree is precise and utterly candid: "For a great contribution to strengthening the defense potential of the Russian Federation."

      "For Selmash this award is not only about today. It is the result of a long and very difficult journey. There were years when the plant was sold off, plundered, when it could simply have disappeared from the country's industrial map. There were crises, bankruptcy, moments when it seemed that the point of no return had already been passed," Alexander Anatolyevich wrote on his Telegram channel.

      "But the plant endured. Because there were people alongside. Those with whom we walked this twenty-year path side by side—through hardships, responsibility and the constant struggle to preserve production, expertise and the very idea of Selmash. These people are before my eyes. And without them there simply would have been no such decree," he stressed. "The Order of Alexander Nevsky is one of Russia's significant state awards. It recognizes contributions to strengthening the state, industry and service to the country. For our plant, it is recognition not only of the result but also of character."

      "I thank the governor of the Kirov region for nominating the enterprise for this high state award," Churin noted in particular.

      However, Alexander Anatolyevich's main gratitude is to the plant's workforce: "To all generations and all veterans, from the foundry to metalworking, to everyone who performed and continues to perform tasks that sometimes seemed impossible. It is on such people that the industry's present and the country's future rest."

      It should be noted that over the past year this is the fifth high award the plant's collective has received. Thus, in 2025 Selmash and its CEO Alexander Churin were awarded the commemorative medal "To a Participant of the Special Military Operation" and the medal "45 Years of the Privolzhsky Order of Zhukov District of the National Guard Troops," departmental medals of the Russian Ministry of Defense "For Labor Valor," and the departmental badge of the Russian Ministry of Education "For Assistance."

      And also in April 2025, by Presidential Decree of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, Alexander Churin himself received the Order of Alexander Nevsky at the Ministry of Defense. "I accepted this order not as a personal award, but on behalf of the entire collective of the Selmash Group of Enterprises. Our workers, engineers, designers, quality control specialists, procurement and logistics staff and many other services work around the clock, on weekends and holidays. Without unnecessary words or pomp—simply because they understand that a share of responsibility for our country's security rests on us," he then said.