The Board of Trustees of the Russkiy Mir Foundation met on July 27 in Moscow. Opening the meeting, chair of the Board of Trustees and President of St. Petersburg State University Lyudmila Verbitskaya said that discussion would focus on the Foundation’s work during the first half of 2010 and revisions to the financial plan for 2010.
Executive Director Vyscheslav Nikonov provided an overview of the Foundation’s work in first half of the year. He noted that 11 Russian Centers were opened during this period, bringing their total number to 57. The centers were opened in such cities as Havana, Kiev, Donetsk, Daugavpils, Shanghai, Ankara, Plodiv, Dushanbe and Groningen. Several days prior to the meeting the first Russian Center in Vietnam was opened at the International School of Vietnam National University, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov participating in the opening ceremony.
Approximately another 20 Russian Centers are planned for opening prior to the end of the year in Ukraine, Montenegro, Lithuania, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, the United States and elsewhere.
The Foundation continues to develop it Russkiy Mir Room program, which was launched last year and now includes 39 such facilities in 20 countries. Seventeen such facilities were opened in the first half of the year.
During the first half of the year the Foundation signed 144 grant agreements and received 419 applications, all of which were reviewed by the Foundation’s grant specialists.
The Foundation developed educational programs as part of the Year of Russia in France: the online language instruction programs “Russian for All”, “Golden Russian” and “Time to Speak Russian” were adapted for French-speaking users. International seminars were held for Russian specialists in Astana, Helsinki, Salzburg and Moscow. International symposiums and conferences were held in Tatarstan and Bulgaria. Seminars were also held in Mons, Astana, Helsinki and Aktobe.
The Russkiy Mir Professor program began actively supporting Russian language instructors in Vietnam, Italy, Lebanon and Chile during the first half of the year, and the Foundation launched the new educational project Russkiy Mir Students.
Another new area of work has been supporting the Model UNESCO, a student-oriented role playing forum. Model UNESCO was organized at Moscow State University and at the International Seliger-2010 Youth Camp.
Vyacheslav Nikonov noted that traffic on the Foundation’s website has increased by a factor of four over the past year, a Internet television channel has been launched along with a radio channel and an online social network is now working in test mode. He also noted that much work remains to be done in the second half of the year with regard to the opening of Russian Centers and Russkiy Mir Rooms, the further development of educational and public awareness projects, the organization of academic and expert events as well as the development of partnerships.
The IV Russkiy Mir Assembly is scheduled for November 3. A number of joint projects are planned for the second half of the year with the Russian Orthodox Church, Rossotrudnichestvo and other organizations.
Members of the Board of Trustees gave high marks for the Foundation’s results for the first half of the year. The financial plan for the 2010 was also discussed and some changes approved by the Board.
