DUSHANBE, September 18, 2008, Asia-Plus — “Opening of the Russian Center is a great event,” Sergey Naryshkin, head of Russian President’s Office, noted at a ceremony of inauguration of Russian Center of Russia’s Russkiy Mir (Russian World) National Foundation at Russia-Tajik Slavic University (RTSU) in Dushanbe on September 18.
“May be evil tongues will say that it is display of Russia’s desire for hegemony – do not believe them. Russian Center is an instrument of strengthening friendship and cooperation between our countries and our peoples, especially in humanitarian ad educational spheres…,” Naryshkin said.
Special Representative of the Russian President for Humanitarian Cooperation with CIS States, Ms. Jahan Pollyyeva, the Russkiy Mir Foundation Executive Director Vyacheslav Nikonov, Russian Ambassador to Tajikistan Ramazan Abdultatipov, and RTSU Chancellor Mahamdyusuf Imomov also attended the center-opening ceremony.
The Russkiy Mir National Foundation has started implementation of the project for creating a network of Russian centers that are aimed at preserving and popularizing Russian language and Russian culture in other countries this year and the first Russian center was opened in Yerevan, Armenia.
In Dushanbe, the first Russian center was established at Tajik Institute of Foreign Languages in Dushanbe on June 10.
To date, Russian centers have been opened Yerevan, Dushanbe, Kant and Osh in Kyrgyzstan, Astana and Ust-Kamenogorsk in Kazakhstan. Besides, the have reached agreements on opening the Russian centers in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Italy, Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania, Uzbekistan, Guatemala, Hungary, Indonesia and some other countries.
