International festival The Great Russian Word to open in Yalta

YALTA (the Crimea), June 6 (Itar-Tass) -- A 5th international festival
"The Great Russian Word" will open here on Monday, June 6, when the world
will celebrate the 212th birthday anniversary of a great Russian poet
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin. The cities of the Autonomous Republic of
Crimea (Ukraine) will host concerts, creative meetings, international
scientific and practical conferences and round table meetings featuring
Crimean, Ukrainian and Russian politicians, figures of culture, science
and education.
"The Crimea is a region, which has close ties with Russian history and
culture. The Crimean residents have a special attitude to the Russian
language and, therefore, the festival set as a top priority to attract
attention of various layers of public, leading politicians in Ukraine and
Russia to the problems to preserve, develop and to use the Russian
language in the Crimea and Ukraine," Chairman of the Crimean Supreme
Council Vladimir Konstantinov, who heads the organizing committee of the
festival, said.
State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov will deliver a welcome speech at the
international festival "The Great Russian Word".
The speaker of the lower house of Russian government will arrive in
Simferopol on Monday evening to meet with Verkhovna Rada Speaker Vladimir
Litvin and Chairman of the Crimean Supreme Council Vladimir Konstantinov,
a source in the Russian delegation told Itar-Tass on Sunday. The agenda of
the negotiations is not disclosed. The sides are expected to discuss
various issues in bilateral relations.
Gryzlov will also lay down the flowers to the Memorial of Unknown
Soldier at the Park named after Gagarin and will visit the St. Trinity
Monastery in Simferopol, where he will meet with Metropolitan of
Simferopol and the Crimea Lazar. The Russia parliamentary football team
headed by a self-perpetuating captain Gryzlov will play a friendly match
with the Crimean deputies at the Fiolent Stadium.
After the match Gryzlov will go to Yalta to attend an opening ceremony
of the festival. The forum is seeking to develop Russian culture, build up
the positions of the Russian language and to develop international
humanitarian cooperation, the festival organizers said.
For five years the festival gained the reputation of an authoritative
Ukrainian-Russian forum, at which prominent scientists, public and
political figures of the countries meet to call for the prioritized
development of Ukrainian-Russian relations and for the rights of the
Russian language speakers in Ukraine to be observed. The hosts and guests
of the festival are unanimous in the position that the Crimean autonomy
became 'a cultural bridge' between two fraternal countries.
Along with numerous cultural events and concerts the public
Ukrainian-Russian forum "Cooperation-2011" is put on the agenda of the
festival. Prominent Ukrainian and Russian statesmen and politicians, the
chiefs of the border regions of the countries, representatives of the
business circles and mass media are invited to attend the forum. An
international expert and political scientific conference entitled "Russian
Culture in the Modern World" will be held at the festival.
Meanwhile, Gryzlov's visit will be held amid continuous attempts of
the Ukrainian leadership to agree with Russia on a lower Russian gas
price. President Viktor Yanukovich believes that the gas agreement signed
in 2009 "is incorrect towards Ukraine." "Certainly, the basic gas price
and the price formula are questionable," he believes. He assumed that the
gas price for Ukraine should be much lower than that for European
countries, particularly due to a shorter distance between Ukraine and
Russia. On June 2, Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Klyuyev
stated that Kiev hopes to sign a new gas price agreement before the start
of a next heating season.
On May 28, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stated that he opposes
any revision of the effective Russian-Ukrainian gas agreements. At a
working meeting with Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller Medvedev demanded to
observe the current agreements, "Gazprom should proceed from the fact that
we should observe the signed agreements in the future." "This concerns the
Russian Federation, Gazprom and our Ukrainian partners," the Russian
president underlined. Meanwhile, Medvedev noted that in the relations with
Ukrainian partners Gazprom should proceed from the fact that "Ukraine is
not some little-known distant partner for us, but a close fraternal
country, which has many economic problems now."
As far as the history of the international festival "The Great Russian
Word" is concerned the first festival was held in the Crimea in 2007
during the Year of Russian Language, which the then Russian President
Vladimir Putin declared. Since then the festival is held in the Autonomous
Republic of Crimea every year under the aegis of the Supreme Council and
the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea with the
support of the state authorities in Ukraine and Russia, the Moscow
government and the Russian World Foundation.