Union State development vector outlined at Moscow State University

The international Russian-Belarusian conference titled 'The vector of development of the Union State of Belarus and Russia and the historical retrospective of Russian-Belarusian relations' was held at the history faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The event was organized by the history faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University, the Foundation for Civil Society Institutions Development 'People's Diplomacy', the history faculty of Belarusian State University, the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus with the support of the Standing Committee of the Union State, the Embassy of Belarus in Russia, the Belarusian Exarchate of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Federal National-Cultural Autonomy 'Belarusians of Russia'.

"Such events contribute to the solution of the key task - ensuring that historically verified, reliable facts of our common history (we have a common history with Belarus) were known not only by students, who learns about them at the university, but also by public. The role of the media, new means of communication existing today is very important. I would like them to base their work on such historically verified and reliable facts," acting dean of the history faculty at Moscow State University Lev Belousov told Vestnik Kavkaza.

"The scientific event is both educational and popularizing. The fact that the history of Belarus, the Belarusian diaspora is studied at the history faculty, that the Belarusian language is taught, that we have been working closely and efficiently with our Belarusian colleagues for many years predetermined the holding of this conference," the deputy dean, Academic Secretary of the history department of Moscow State University, head of the Diaspora History Laboratory, Associate Professor, candidate of historical sciences Oksana Solopova explained.

"The issues considered today at the conference are interesting, important, very useful for the further development of Belarusian-Russian relations, considering the fact that we have a single state, the Union State. The recommendations which will be developed here are extremely important. As far as I know, a scientific journals will be prepared following the conference, which will give pause for thought, identify new trends, new vectors of our cooperation between Russia and Belarus," head of the business cultural complex of the Embassy of Belarus in Russia Vasily Chernik said.

In the framework of the conference, scientists, teachers, experts from Russia and Belarus discussed key stages of the Russian-Belarusian history, as well as development of scientific and educational centers of both countries at the present stage.

Russian political scientist and journalist, political technologist, international expert Alexei Kochetkov told Vestnik Kavkaza: "The only possible vector of development of the Union State is based on the indisputable truth that our states are part of the all-Russian civilizational space, being historically its constituent parts. Unfortunately, faced with an unprecedented since the end of the Cold War ideological expansion of the West, our peoples faced a choice once again - merging and dissolving in the Western world under the conditions proposed by American and European politicians, or preserving their distinctive civilization to continue their development path on the basis of their own rich historical experience."

Russia and Belarus have accumulated rich experience in interstate cooperation. This year marks the 20th anniversary of establishing the Union State. State Secretary of the Union State Grigory Rapota told Vestnik Kavkaza why such an association was needed: "We have already got used to living in this coordinate system. It has done a lot for Russians and Belarusians in the social sphere, in freedom of movement - not to feel like foreigners in the territory of another country. Impressive results are also provided by the coordination of efforts in the external political field, in the military political field, in the scientific and technical field. We cannot say that all tasks have been solved, but we already have something to present to the society."