The government order on cultural centers will make it easier to present an attractive image of Russia abroad.
Photo: Valery Levitin
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Moscow Learns from London's Mistake
Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov signed an order on Monday on the opening of Russian culture and science centers in six countries of the CIS. The Russian Centers for International Scientific and Cultural Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation have been open for long time, but had operated without a government order. The prime minister's order serves two purposes. It will guarantee the centers budget funding and it will protect the centers against closure by the host states, the way Russia closed down the British Council there. The text of Order No. 540-r appeared on the Russian government website only yesterday. The Russian centers are in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
The centers specified are among 75 Russian cultural centers worldwide. They are state agencies and part of the Russian Foreign Ministry and have existed under various names since the 1920s. Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman cosmonaut, was in charge of them at one time. They functions include providing informational support for Russian foreign and domestic policy, forming a positive image of Russia in the modern world, developing ties with Russians and Russian speakers in diaspora and encouraging the use an study of the Russian language.
Eleonora Mitrofanova, head of Roszarubezhtsentr, the umbrella organization for all 75 of the cultural centers, explained that, under Russian law, the centers could only be opened by order of the government. Those six centers were never subject to government order, and the host countries could have claimed that they were operating illegally. “Now they have been brought into correspondence with the law,” she stated.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 23, 2008
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