Russian compatriots in Austria get united, maintain close links

. VIENNA, June 5 (Itar-Tass) - The 5th jubilee conference of Russian
compatriots residing in Austria was held in Vienna on Saturday. It drew
together representatives of an almost 300,000-strong Russian Diaspora from
all the nine Austrian federal lands. The forum was organized on the
initiative of the Coordination Council of Compatriots and supported by the
Russian embassy in Vienna and the Vienna-based Russian Centre for Science
and Culture.
"No one knows for sure how many Russian compatriots reside in Austria.
But this is not so important. We are not going to hold a census. This is
not very important. We have a different task. We should help them to find
or preserve links with each other, with their homeland, the embassy, state
and public structures," Irina Muchkina, the president of the Austrian
Association of Russian Compatriots, told Itar-Tass.
"Societies of Russian compatriots are appearing everywhere in Austria.
They are springing up rather than being created. Here, coordination and
organizational issues come to the forefront."
The Russian-speaking community in Austria is very different from
compatriots residing in Germany. In Germany, there are persons who receive
state allowances and come to live in Germany for permanent residence
because of their German roots or under a program of atoning the guilt of
the Germans tot eh Jewish people. There's no this category of people in
Austria. Austria has accepted people of free professions and top-class
experts from Russia and the former Soviet republics, who can not only work
in prestigious companies but can also organize their own business. They
include doctors, scientists, musicians, artists, painters, software
specialists and athletes. All of them are self-sufficient, so their
desire to unite and not to lose their historical roots is comes from the
inside and is, therefore, particularly valuable.
"Russian women who are married to Austrians also form a considerable
part of Russian compatriots," Irina Muchkina went on to say. "As a rule
these woman have higher education although they often have problems with
finding a job. But that doesn't matter. The thing is that they want to
preserve the Russian language to teach it to their children. We can also
help them with that. Weekend Russian-language schools are being set up for
children all over Austria where Russian is taught in an unobtrusive
playing manner. Besides, such schools usually have artistic, music and
dance studios for talented children," Muchkina said.
This year's conference was attended by Russian Ambassador to Austria,
Sergei Nechayev; Oleg Ksenofontov, the director of the Russian Centre for
Science and Culture, as well as Alexey Abramov, assistant director of
Department for Work with Compatriots Abroad.
"It's vitally important for us to learn from first hands how our
compatriots in Austria are, to hear about their problems and plans, share
with them the latest information from Moscow and outline ways for further
cooperation," Alexey Abramov said.
The conference ended with re-election of the association's leadership.
Irina Muchkina preserved her post of president.

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