Vitebsk Slavic Bazaar proves aspiration for unanimity - Lukashenko.

MINSK, July 10 (Itar-Tass) -- The international fair Slavic Bazaar in
Vitebsk demonstrates clearly the aspiration of the Slavic nations to
unanimity, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said at the opening
of the fair, where representatives of 30 countries take part.
The atmosphere of the festival shows "clearly that the Slavic
unanimity does exist," he said.
"With all their hearts, the people want to live in one family, to live
friendly and well," Lukashenko said. "The great belief in the Slavic
fraternity and the love to their motherland are the sources of the
live-giving power of our festival."
"It is a paradox, but quite often we do not appreciate the greatest
achievement we have - the historical unanimity of ours," he continued. "It
is especially true at the time when Europe and other regions try to unite,
to unite at any cost, when sometimes interests of states are damaged."
"Friendship is more valuable than any rationalism," he added.
The Slavic Bazaar in Vitebsk has become a part of "not only culture,
but of the big politics, it has become a platform for meetings of state
officials and civil activists from different countries, it is supported in
all continents."
"Tens of thousands of actors and musicians from over 60 countries have
participated in the festival, which means that there is no such power to
make us forget the noble impulse which gave birth to the Slavic Bazaar and
our friendship," Lukashenko said.
Vitebsk is a city in Belarus, near the border with Russia. The city
population in 2004 was 342,381. It is the country's fourth largest city.


.Exhibition of XVI-XVIII centuries treasure coins opens in Kursk.

KURSK, July 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Kursk's regional historical museum opens
an exhibition of a unique collection of coins dated XVI-XVIII centuries.
"There are many coins of the times the Romanovs were at power, namely
1731," the curator of the museum, Elena Alferova, said.
The coins were found by construction workers by the walls of a
monastery. They did not want to reveal the treasury and to inform to the
authorities. Later, they were detained by the police at a railway station.
Their heated behaviour attracted the police.
There are only three collections of such coins Russia, Alferova said.
One is in St. Petersburg's Hermitage museum, another is in the Moscow
Historical Museum, and the third will stay in Kursk.
"Experts will have to tell us which coin is most valuable," she said.
"Even now before the analysis is over, it is clear that the price of the
Kursk collection is of dozens of thousands of dollars."
The treasure must have been hidden in the second quarter of the 18th
century. Experts say that most coins were made between 1618 and 1736.
The coins carry the profiles of Katherine the Great and Peter I.
The exhibition is open for visitors.
The Romanovs was the second and last imperial dynasty to rule over
Russia, reigning from 1613 until the February Revolution abolished the
crown in 1917. The Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, who was himself a member of a
cadet branch of the Oldenburgs, married into the Romanov family early in
the eighteenth century; all Romanov tzars from the mid 18th century to the
revolutions of 1916 and 1917 were descended from that marriage. Though
officially known as the House of Romanov, these descendants of the Romanov
and Oldenburg Houses are sometimes referred to as Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov.
Kursk is one of the oldest cities of European Russia not far from
Moscow.


.Russian communities in Western hemisphere gather in New York.

NEW YORK, July 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Russians abroad need to see strong
booming Russia which is impossible without modernisation.
A conference on October 7-8 in Moscow will be devoted to the input in
modernisation from compatriots, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's
department supervising contacts with compatriots living abroad, Alexander
Chepurin, said on Saturday.
Now that the giant scientific and technological complex Skolkovo is
being organised near Moscow, the cooperation with Russians who live in
developed countries is very important. The organisers of the conference
plan to invite 150 representatives of compatriots from abroad.
Russians living outside the country may favour the modernisation in
Russia, he said. It is necessary to provide the conditions to let them use
their potential in the interests of themselves and Russia. As yet, we are
in the very beginning of this way, Chepurin said.
He spoke at the Fourth regional conference of Russian compatriots in
North and South America in New York. The participants in the conference
confirmed that it is necessary to connect Russians abroad with their
motherland by means of information channels in order to deliver true
objective information on Russia to the 35 million Russians who live in 91
countries.
Archbishop Yustinian expressed confidence that priests may favour the
contacts between the compatriots and their motherland. He spoke about the
Greek and Armenian diasporas who play and active role in the support of
their churches abroad and said that Russians might support the Russian
church a similar way.
Representatives of Russian communities from Brazil, Canada, Bolivia,
Peru and Paraguay shared their experience.
"Even two years ago it was impossible to imagine that representatives
of all emigration flows may take part in one conference," an organiser of
the current event said. "We can see Baptists, Old-Believers, Russians who
had to go via China and the Cozaks of different trends here, and today
they share the same table and discuss how to preserve the language and
culture for future generations."
Russia shows a new interest towards its compatriots, and they look at
their motherland differently, too, he said.

-0-kar


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