Publications

The State Duma has begun to consider in a first reading two rather important laws dedicated to the education system for the arts. This education system has traditionally been built on a three-step sequence – children’s art schools, arts colleges and academic-level art programs. The laws currently under consideration are aimed at preserving this system. Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Culture Grigory Ivliev commented on this legislation now under consideration. The two pieces of legislation that we are currently considering in a first reading fill the legislative gap in the regulation of education with regard to arts and...

Susan George, a Franco-American economist and political activist, President of the Observatory on Globalization in Paris, has come to Moscow to convince Russia not enter the World Trade Organization. Or at least to delay the country’s entry. She explained her position in an exclusive interview for the Russkiy Mir portal. – You are an ardent opponent of the WTO. Why? – I am not against economic order, but I am against the entrenched economic order in which transnational corporation in cohort dictate the rules of the game to the world. Russia still hasn’t signed up and theoretically could oppose these rules or at least...

This year Russian Air Force Day will be celebrated August 21. The reason for this is that in 1992 a decree was issued by the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation: this day should be celebrated on the third Sunday of the third summer month. The basis for this is a rather tentative link to two dates. On August 12, 1912, Nicolas II signed a decree subordinating all aviation structures in the military to the Main Directorate of the General Staff. And during Soviet times, Air Force Day was celebrated on August 18 for no apparent reason. So Air Force Day is basically celebrated August 12, depending on the day of the week. So...

The situation in Japan remains very difficult. Japanese nuclear specialists still have not managed to cool the storage containers of spent radioactive fuel at reactor 4 of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Evacuations continue for everyone within a 20 km radius of the power plant. The number of dead and missing has exceeded 10,000. There is no panic, but the population is preparing from more trials to come, stocking up on water, medication and products. According to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, no Russian citizens are known to have been harmed by the catastrophes. At present the atmospheric conditions for the Russian Far East...

On March 15, 1917, the last Russian Emperor, Nicolas II, abdicated. On March 15, 1990, the first and last president of USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, was elected. Apart from nationality, these two very different figures were united by another characteristic as well: Nicolas held a good deal of the blame for the collapse of one regime – the Russian Empire, while Mikhail Gorbachev was clearly at the helm during the final deterioration of another powerful regime – the Soviet Union. In the first instance, the process of the self-destruction of the state took only a matter of months. The events of late-1916 and early-1917 progressed as if...

Head of European Programs of the Russkiy Mir Foundation Alexei Gromyko took part in the celebration of Maslenitsa in London, which this year for the first time was held on Trafalgar Square in the center of the city. The celebration was supported by the Russkiy Mir Foundation, Onexim Group, the Russian Minister Culture, Russian Embassy in Great Britain, the mayor’s offices of London, Moscow and St. Petersburg, Rossotrudnichestvo and others. The event was organized by the British company Ensemble Productions, which is headed by Olga Balakleets On March 6, Forgiveness Sunday, Trafalgar Square was jam-packed with people, who had come for...