Publications

Pursuant to this document, Kartli-Kakheti Kingdom accepted the protectorate of the Russian Empire. That covenant formed the foundation for Georgia’s incorporation within the Russian Empire and it is this particular treaty that now underlies debates as well as historical and political speculations about the relations between the two neighboring states.A multitude of young Georgians are convinced nowadays that at the end of the 19th century the treacherous northern neighbor used the situation in Trans-Caucasia to annex independent Georgia. An overwhelming number of young Russians firmly believe that in the reign of Catherine the Great...

Good news for those who are not indifferent to Russian literature and school education: the internet voting has just started to choose “100 best books” for Russian schoolchildren. All those willing to participate and once again reflect on their own artistic predilections (without ignoring the requisite benefit for youth) should better hurry up, since the voting will last only one week until August 7.The initiative to form such a list for extracurricular reading was taken by Vladimir Putin. In one of his articles during the presidential election campaign the current president suggested that a national list of 100 books be formed...

Question: Perhaps we can start with your impressions of yesterday's Olympics’ opening ceremony: What did you think of it? How did you like it?Dmitry Medvedev: I liked it for several reasons. Firstly, it was an exceptional spectacle, very well prepared and quite rich. What is particularly important is that it was a very British show, not Chinese, not American, not Russian, so it succeeded in creating a very British atmosphere. In my view, the dominant idea, alongside that of sport and de Coubertin and various historical images, was the idea of British music. British music is listened to and loved in many countries of the world,...

Russian gymnasts Aliya Mustafina, Victoria Komova, Anastasia Grishina, Maria Paseka and Ksenia Afanasyeva were second in the Olympic team event on Tuesday. Having drawn very close to the American “fierce five”, our girls fell apart on the balance beam and floor exercises. The 5-point gap in the final score is too wide. On the other hand, we beat the strong Romanian team as well as Chinese gymnasts – the Olympic champions of 2008! We were dreaming of gold, but even silver medals are an indisputable success after a complete failure in Beijing where our girls did not even mount the pedestal.Our girls delivered a powerful...

In Armenia, where the standing of the Russian language is most favorable compared to other countries in the post-Soviet space, most believe that the issue of the status for Russian is over-politicized in Ukraine. Not speaking Russian is thought to be a shame in Armenia, for it is learned starting from the second school grade and in the first year at universities. Nevertheless, there are some snags here too, as local experts admit. Armenia is mono-ethnic like no other nation in post-Soviet space. More than 97% of the population is Armenians. But it is Armenia along with Ukraine that adopted the European Charter of Languages faster than other...

The bill “On fundamentals of the public language policy” that has become notorious in Ukraine and has not been fully passed yet, in spite of passing two readings, will confer an official status on the Russian language, even if only at the regional level. The Party of the Regions that initiated the bill sees it as one of its main trump cards for the parliamentary elections to be held this fall. The Ukrainian opposition flatly rejects any weakening of national language policy.  No-win strategyThe language debate in Ukraine has been one of the hottest topics of the past two decades. The federal government has tried to move the...