DUSHANBE, September 18, 2008, 2008, Asia-Plus — An official opening of Russian Center of Russia’s Russkiy Mir (Russian World) National Foundation at Russia-Tajik Slavic University (RTSU) in Dushanbe is being held today on sidelines of the third forum of the creative and scientific intelligentsia of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
We will recall that the center was supposed to open on August 29 but then the opening of the center was postponed till September.
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, Moscow State University Chancellor Viktor Sadovnichy and RTSU administration are attending the center-opening ceremony.
We will recall that 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. 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. The ceremony was attended by Russian Ambassador to Tajikistan Ramazan Abdulatipov, Russkiy Mir’s Board Executive Director Vyacheslav Nikonov as well as senior representatives of the Tajik Government, chancellors of a number of Tajik universities, and media.
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.
The Russian center is a resource center and the program for creating Russian centers includes providing them with libraries (more than 1,000 items, including encyclopedias, reference books, fictions, textbooks, etc), and collection of multimedia products (movies, audio-books, educational supplies).
The Russkiy Mir National Foundation was established by Russian president’s decree of June 2007. The Foundation is supposed to become a Russian analogue of such well-known institutions as the British Council and the Alliance franchise. Known Russian political scientist and pubic figure Vyacheslav Nikonov was appointed to head the Foundation. It was the firs time in the history of Russia that a non-commercial organization has been set up by a presidential decree and co-founded by two ministries at once – the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education.
