By Vestnik Kavkaza
The Federal Agency on the CIS affairs, compatriots living abroad and international humanitarian cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo) was founded 5 years ago continues its work on promotion and preservation of the Russian language and culture in the South Caucasus. The deputy head of the agency, Georgy Muradov, told Vestnik Kavkaza about the key priorities of Rossotrudnichestvo.
- Please tell us about Rossotrudnichestvo’s work in the South Caucasus.
- Rossotrudnichestvo is actively working with the countries of the South Caucasian region which includes five countries – Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia. Today, Russian centers of science and culture, or offices of Rossotrudnichestvo, operate in almost 70 countries. They are present in four countries of the South Caucasus. We have no office only in Georgia because our diplomatic relations with Tbilisi are broken, while the Russian centers of science and culture are elements of diplomatic missions, they work within Russian embassies.
At the same time, Rossotrudnichestvo is also working with the civil society, international non-governmental organizations; and through these social channels and our work with civil society we communicate with all these mentioned countries.
We provide the course of close cooperation and the support of integration processes within the CIS. The work is long-term; it cannot be done in a day or a year.
I am sure that the South Caucasus states are an important part of the civilization which was historically formed around Russia, together with Russia. The civilization has a very favorable prospect for its development and existence. As a historian I think that the period of the Soviet Union’s dissolution, I would even say the period of dissolution of historic Russia, is timely. The point is in preservation of civilization. The core of the civilization is the states which are a core of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Customs Union, i.e. Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan. It occurred not accidentally. We are connected by spiritual roots, cultural roots, ethnic roots, civilization, and economic roots.
If we look at the modern world, there are a lot of problems, crises in the economic sphere. Everybody in the world admits that Russia has the most favorable prospect because we have undeveloped resources which enable us to work and develop. Attractiveness of Russia will grow. And reconstruction of the civilization space will take place for sure. From this point of view, the South Caucasus is a part of our common historic past, presence and future.
- Are there any major prior projects in the South Caucasus, which you would like to mention?
- Through the federal target program “The Russian Language” we support the Russian language among our compatriots who live abroad and help representatives of titular nations to study Russian.
The second aspect is culture. Of course culture connects our peoples; it is a fundament for communication and mutual understanding. That’s why the support of the Russian culture, the culture of other peoples of Russia, multinational Russian culture is also one of goals of Rossotrudnichestvo. And we promote it in our Russian cultural centers, including countries of the South Caucasus.
Finally, the third element is communication with the society. For three years annually we have been taking young people, young leaders from the CIS countries, including the South Caucasus, to Moscow. They are not only children and students, but grownups, 25-35-year old, who form public opinion among young people. They get acquainted with modern Russia and see that we are still connected to each other, and Russia is ready to be together with them in the future. It is very important.
Of course the civil society includes not only the youth, but also the society of friendship, social organizations and so on. We support and improve the civil society and create opportunities to communicate in various spheres for wide layers of the population – professional, union, social, inter-party, and other issues of humanitarian cooperation between our nations. Rossotrudnichestvo deals with this constantly.
