Medvedev, Kokoity to hold talks on RF assistance to S Ossetia.

SOCHI, August 13 (Itar-Tass) - Russian and South Ossetian Presidents -
Dmitry Medvedev and Eduard Kokoity will hold talks on Friday focusing on
Russia's assistance to the restoration of the republic's infrastructure
and housing destroyed as a result of Georgian aggression two years ago -
in August 2008, the Kremlin press service reported.
"Russia provides considerable support to the young state in the
building of a democratic civil society, formation of the regulatory
framework, development of the bodies of authority and management, training
of national personnel. These measures are called upon, in particular, to
promote the sustainable political development and economic
self-sufficiency of South Ossetia," a Kremlin official stressed.
The meeting participants also "plan to discuss the bilateral agenda,
regional issues, including problems of ensuring peace and security in
Transcaucasia."
Moscow and Tskhinval are maintaining a regular political dialogue at
the top level, close interaction within the framework of the governments
and parliaments. This year Medvedev and Kokoity met two times - on May 9
during the events to celebrate the 65th VE Day anniversary and on June 1
in Rostov-on-Don where horse races for the Russian president's prize were
held. The side are actively developing the contractual legal framework of
cooperation - it now includes 32 documents and another 40 draft agreements
on various aspects are at the stage of development.
On August 8, Medvedev paid a brief working visit to Abkhazia, the
second republic that suffered from Georgia's aggression. According to him,
the decision that Russia made (on recognition of Abkhazia and South
Ossetia as independent states) - "it was a hard and uneasy one, and the
time has shown that this decision was right."
Medvedev noted that at that time "in essence the existence of the
peoples of South Ossetia and Abkhazia was placed in jeopardy." "If those
decisions were not made then - the situation would be totally different
now," the RF president said. "Now the situation has calmed down as I see
from communication with international partners," Medvedev stressed.
At a meeting with Abkhazian President Sergei Bagapsh he promised that
Russia will develop the whole complex of relations with Abkhazia in the
political, economic and security spheres. Russia will develop the whole
scope of relations with Abkhazia, and "there is no alternative to this,"
Medvedev noted. "Currently it is very important to continue economic and
social relations," the Russian leader said. He believes that currently
Abkhazia "has all opportunities to make this country prosperous."
Specifically, the Russian president stressed the perfect climate in
the republic, the developing tourism industry and the fact that many
Russians come to spend their vacations in Abkhazia. "There are other
projects and ideas that can be realized and we will discuss them,"
Medvedev said.
For his part, Bagapsh thanked Medvedev for his visit to Abkhazia.
"Thanks a lot that you have found time in your tense schedule and that you
are in Abkhazia today. Thank you from me personally and from the whole
Abkhaz people," Bagapsh underlined.
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.Fourth Baltic Education Forum opening in Kaliningrad.

KALININGRAD, August 13 (Itar-Tass) - The Fourth Baltic Education Forum
is beginning its work in Kaliningrad on Friday on the base of the Immanuel
Kant State University of Russia, the government of the Kaliningrad region
told Itar-Tass.
Taking part in the forum will be over 200 representatives of the
education and science sphere from Russian regions, as well as from Poland,
Germany, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus,
Armenia and the United States. The Russian higher educational
establishments will also be widely represented: Moscow, St. Petersburg,
Oryol, Novgorod, Armavir, Saratov, Surgut, Petrozavodsk.
Among the participants and guests of the forum are Russian Education
and Science Minister Andrei Fursenko, governor of the Kaliningrad region
Georgy Boos, Rector of the Lomonosov Moscow State University Viktor
Sadovnichy, Director of the Institute of Globalisation Problems Mikhail
Delyagin, President of the US Russia Foundation for Economic Advancement
and the Rule of Law (USRF) Mark Pomar, President of the European Higher
Education Society (EAIR) Kari Hypponen and Professor, Chairwoman of the
Lithuanian People's Union Kazimiera Prunskiene.
The Baltic Education Forum 2010 in Kaliningrad has expanded its
format. Founded in 2006, the forum as a venue for annual meeting of
rectors of the leading Russian and European universities for the exchange
of experience in order to raise the quality of education and work out the
common position on the principal issues of the higher education
development in Europe and the world, this time - during Teacher's Year -
gathered pedagogues of the general and higher school combining their
efforts.
"The main theme of the forum will be the analysis of the practice of
the creation in Russian Federation's subjects of models of socio-economic
mechanisms of management of the education system and raising the level of
independence of educational establishments," the regional government
specified. Within the roundtable discussions and workshops that will be
held on the base of Kaliningrad schools and colleges, the forum
participants will discuss regional models of the quality management in the
sphere of the preschool, extended and professional education, development
of academic and scientific cooperation.
RF Education and Science Minister Andrei Fursenko will speak at the
forum's opening ceremony at the university. On the same day the minister
will visit a discussion venue of the forum in the resort city of
Svetlogorsk where issues of the development of academic and scientific
cooperation will be discussed. In the evening Fursenko is invited to the
international tent camp "Baltic Artek" that is working on the Kaliningrad
coast of the Baltic Sea for almost a month. The summer pedagogical school
"Education of the Future" will open there with the participation of 500
young pedagogues.
The forum's events will be held on several venues. In the World Ocean
Museum the participants will discuss issues of the management of the
education system in the modernisation conditions. In the Yantarny town
they will discuss the issue "business and education." Its participants are
members of the Kaliningrad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Union of
Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Union of Builders, Union of Machine
Builders, Association of Furniture Makers, representatives of state
institutions of the primary and secondary professional education. They
will discuss important issues of the training of personnel for enterprises
and organisations of the region by professional education establishments.
The discussion venue "New School - on a Turnkey Basis" will be set up
at a newly built school for 1,000 students in the Bolshoye Isakovo
settlement. The discussion will be devoted to issues of construction of
new school buildings meeting the requirements of the federal state
educational standard.
The forum participants will also exchange experience in the
introduction of federal state standards on the primary general education,
implementation of the federal legislation on the improvement of the legal
status of state institutions. Foreign participants in the event will share
their experience in the modernisation of their countries' education system.
The Baltic Education Forum participants include representatives of the
federal, regional and municipal bodies of education management, heads of
non-governmental organisations, educational establishments, as well as
rectors, scientists of a number of Russia's leading higher learning
institutions that will act as experts.
The Baltic Education Forum will work until August 15.
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