Festivities on Day of Slavic Cultures held at UNESCO HQ.

PARIS, May 26 (Itar-Tass) - Festivities on the occasion of the Day of
Slavic Cultures were held on Tuesday at the Paris headquarters of UNESCO.
They were chaired by the Chairperson of the Executive Board of the
international organisation, Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of the
Russian Federation to UNESCO Eleonora Mitrofanova.
The Osipov National Academic Folk Instruments Orchestra headed by
conductor, People's Artist of Russia Professor Vladimir Andropov played
before diplomats, scientists and public figures of countries of the five
continents. Musicians from Bulgaria, Slovenia, Belarus, Ukraine and other
Slavic states also took part in the concert.
A reception was held at the UNESCO headquarters in the evening to mark
the holiday organised by the RF Permanent Delegation to UNESCO and the
Russian Culture Ministry. Eleonora Mitrofanova welcomed the guests on
behalf of the organisation.
The festivities in UNESCO highlighted the major creative heritage and
unique diversity of the Slavic culture. Over 300 million people speak
Slavic languages in the world.
The international authority of the forum of Slavic cultures is
growing. Its presentations have been held in recent years at the EU
headquarters in Brussels, and in the European parliamentary capital
Strasbourg. The most universal international organisation UNESCO that has
193 states as its members this year became the event's venue.
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.Music band of Pyotr Nalich passes to Eurovision 2010 contest final.

OSLO, May 26 (Itar-Tass) - The music band of Pyotr Nalich (Peter
Nalitch) representing Russia at the Eurovision 2010 contest on Wednesday
passed to the final of the contest with the song "Lost and Forgotten." The
final will take place on May 29.
Television viewers and jury all over Europe thus determined the best
10 of 17 singers that performed in the first semi-final. Together with the
Russian participants other finalists are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova,
Greece, Portugal, Belarus, Serbia, Belgium, Albania and Iceland.
The second semi-final will be held on May 27 and also 17 countries
will participate in it, 9 of them will go to the final. Besides, the
organisers of the competition - Great Britain, Germany, Spain and France,
as well as the country host of the jubilee 55th Eurovision contest Norway
- pass to the final automatically.
Peter Nalitch has become famous in Russia after the publication in
2007 on YouTube of the clip of his song "Guitar" (where he makes fun of
himself with broken English lyrics and dubious film editing qualities). In
about a month, 70,000 persons had already watched it. The Russian users of
LiveJournal were sending each other the link to the song, which became
quickly famous. After that, interviews and articles were made about Peter
in some Russian papers.
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.RF, Belarus politicians to discuss Union State prospects.

ST. PETERSBURG, May 26 (Itar-Tass) - Prospects for the Russia-Belarus
Union State will be discussed by the two countries' politicians at the
conference "Important problems of the building and development of the
Union State" that is opening in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.
Taking part in the forum will be deputies of the Russian and
Belarusian parliaments, the two countries' ministries and departments,
permanent committee of the Union State, representatives of research and
religious organisations.
During plenary meetings and workshops the politicians are to discuss a
wide spectrum of issues, including international aspects of the Union
State's building, joint innovation programmes of the two countries,
interaction with the press and religious organisations. They will not
overlook the common for the two peoples tragedy - the aftermath of the
Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
The current conference will be the sixth. The first forum was held in
St. Petersburg in 2000. Since then the conference was twice held in
Petersburg and once in Moscow and once in Gelendzhik.
Originally, the Commonwealth of Russia and Belarus was formed on April
2, 1996. The basis of the union was strengthened on April 2, 1997, with
the signing of the "Treaty on the Union between Belarus and Russia" at
which time its name was changed to the Union of Belarus and Russia.
Several further agreements were signed on December 25, 1998, with the
intention of providing greater political, economic, and social integration.
Nevertheless, the nature of this original political entity remained
exceedingly vague. Under pressure from his own political opponents, who
advocated a reunion of the two states, and from Belarusian President
Alexander Lukashenko, who sought to tie his exceedingly weak economy to
Russia's, then Russian President Boris Yeltsin initiated the creation of
the current Union in order to harmonize the political and economic
differences between the two nations. A similar proposal had been put
forward by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in 1994, envisioning the
founding of a "Eurasian Union," but this proposal was never adopted or
seriously pursued. The Treaty on the Creation of a Union State of Russia
and Belarus was signed on December 8, 1999. The intention was to
eventually achieve a federation like the Soviet Union; with a common
president, parliament, flag, coat of arms, anthem, constitution, army,
citizenship, currency, etc. The current Union was ratified by the Russian
State Duma on December 22, 1999 and the National Assembly of Belarus on
January 26, 2000. The latter is the date the Treaty and the Union
officially came into effect.
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