Valentina Matviyenko, Speaker of the Federation Council of Russia, and Anatoly Torkunov, Rector of MGIMO, believe that their idea of forming a network university and a CIS common history book would strengthen the integration process.
Matviyenko noted that Europe had already accomplished such goals and composed books for the histories of Germany, France and Poland. Torkunov proposed training of master-level scholars to study Eurasian integration problems at the network university.
Andrey Smirnov, Vice President of the Foundation for Development of Eurasian Cooperation, expressed support for the initiative. He believes that there is great need for a CIS history book and that it will stimulate development of the Customs Union and Eurasian integration.
Ilgar Niftaliyev, a senior scientist of the History Institute of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, expressed confidence that the university and the history book would have a positive impact on post-Soviet space. He expects the university to develop information technologies, encourage communication and integration.
Ruben Safrastyan, Director of the Institute for Oriental Studies of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, noted that the history book was needed to organize the common cultural, scientific and educational space of the CIS.
Andrey Chebotaryov, Director of Alternativa (Kazakhstan), called the ideas of Matviyenko and Torkunov interesting and topical. Involvement of historians from all states taking part in the project would guarantee impartial and interesting information reflected in the book, the expert supposes.
Yevgeny Korchevoy, Director of the WTO-Inform Analytical Center, approved the initiatives. He said that Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Russia had their own history which did not take the histories of other CIS members into account. He believes that the CIS states should know about the history of their neighbours.
