Viktor Sadovnichy: long-term fruitful relations unite us with Belarusian colleagues

As part of a series of events aimed at developing and strengthening university and academic interaction between the leading educational and scientific centers of Russia and Belarus, the first forum of the association of universities of Russia and Belarus 'Science and education in the context of great challenges of the modern world' has opened today at the Intellectual Center-Fundamental Library of Lomonosov Moscow State University. Rector of Lomonosov Moscow State University, academician Viktor Sadovnichy and the rector of the Belarusian State University, professor Andrei Korol spoke at the opening of the event.

According to the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, Viktor Sadovnichy called the current event significant for Russian-Belarusian cooperation. "A declaration on the activities of the Association of Russian and Belarusian Universities, Andrei Korol, rector of the Belarusian University, and I signed during the 6th Forum of Russian and Belarusian Regions in July in St. Petersburg. The declaration was signed in the presence of the Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko and Chairman of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovich," he recalled in the first place.

"We note with satisfaction the positive dynamics in the development of Russian-Belarusian cooperation. In September this year, a program of actions was agreed between Russia and Belarus to implement the provisions of the Treaty on the creation of a union state, a set of integration measures in the field of economics was provided. Now we must continue our work to strengthen scientific and educational integration," Viktor Sadovnichy emphasized.

"Long-term fruitful relations unite us with our Belarusian colleagues. The agreements on cooperation with Belarusian universities, institutes and the national academy were followed by many successful educational and scientific projects that involve teachers, scientists, students and graduate students," the rector of Moscow State University noted.

"Belarusian universities are actively participating in the activities of the Eurasian Universities Association. I want to express my deep gratitude to our regular partners: Belarusian State University, Belarusian National Technical University, Mogilev State A. Kuleshov University, Francisk Skorina Gomel State University, Grodno State University, Vitebsk State University, as well as the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus," he pointed out.

"The great help and unquestionable value for the development of our scientific and educational contacts is that the Russian language has the status of the state language along with Belarusian in the Republic of Belarus,"Viktor Sadovnichy said.

"The first Russian-Belarusian international joint double degree educational master's program of Moscow University and Belarusian State University titled 'History of the Belarusian Diaspora' is a fundamentally new format in educational cooperation. The program allows combining the educational, methodological and scientific experience of Russian and Belarusian historians and convey a sense of university brotherhood to our young colleagues," the rector of Moscow State University said.

"Our scientific cooperation has always been focused on the pressing challenges of our time. Scientists at Moscow and Belarusian universities are working on projects that meet the priority areas of our countries, participate in the implementation of the programs of the Union State of Belarus and Russia. More than 30 research teams of Moscow State University cooperate with scientific and educational organizations of Belarus. Over 5 years, 120 joint articles have been published in international journals - and this number does not include articles on nuclear physics, with hundreds of people all over world being the authors," he pointed out.

"For many years we have been cooperating in the field of information technology development. Moscow State University took an active part in the implementation of the Union State program on supercomputers SKIF. A team of Russian and Belarusian scientists consisting of Sadovnichy, Voevodin, Abramov, Ablameyko, Anischenko, Medvedev was awarded the prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus in 2009 for outstanding scientific results obtained during joint research," Viktor Sadovnichy recalled.

"I would like to emphasize the significant contribution of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Belarusian Republican Foundation for Fundamental Research to the development of our cooperation. Over the past three years, 23 teams of Moscow University were among the winners in the competition for joint research announced by these funds," he said.

Talking about the widest range of joint research projects of Russia and Belarus, Viktor Sadovnichy also mentioned the contacts between scientists of the History Department of Moscow University and their Belarusian colleagues. "The historians of Moscow State University have been collaborating with colleagues from universities in Minsk, Mogilev, Gomel, Vitebsk, Grodno for many years. We had many joint events and common activities in different areas. In 2016, a new format for interaction appeared - the international program Days of the History Department. Then we had the Friendship Days of Moscow State University and BSU', a common holiday uniting the teams and leadership of the two main universities of the Union State," the rector of Moscow State University recalled.

"The historians of Moscow State University actively collaborate with colleagues from the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Their widespread activity has been appreciated. For example, their scientific collection 'Republic-Partisan', prepared for the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from Nazi invaders, was awarded the Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation in Culture in 2015," he said.