Russia will support compatriots

Today, Russian President Vladimir Putin will speak in St. Petersburg at the Second World Congress of Compatriots. On behalf of the head of state, the forum program was developed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, because “support and protection of the rights of compatriots abroad” is now one of the officially declared priorities of the ministry. The organizing committee of the congress was headed by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The Russian diaspora abroad numbers 30 million people, two thirds of them live in the neighboring countries. For the first time, compatriots gathered in Moscow in October 2001. About 600 envoys from 103 countries will arrive in St. Petersburg, including 60 from Ukraine, 45 from Kazakhstan, and 10-25 delegates from Israel, Germany and the United States.

In addition to the Program of work with compatriots abroad for 2006-2008, approved by the Russian government on October 2 of this year, the problems of the Russian diaspora are raised in two more large-scale documents - the federal target program “Russian language (2006-2010)” and the state program for providing assistance to the voluntary resettlement of compatriots living abroad to Russia. In 2006, 320 million rubles were allocated to support compatriots, and the amount will increase in the future. 2007 will become the Year of the Russian Language in the World. Assistance to Russian culture abroad will be carried out through cultural centers, Russian-language schools, Russian language courses and Russian-language media.

The Russian Foreign Ministry explained to Vremya Novostey that they see their task as “to make compatriots feel more comfortable and never face a violation of their civil and personal freedoms.” Moscow hopes that this “constructive line for preserving the Russian-speaking space will be correctly received in all capitals of the world.”

Katerina LABETSKAYA