Symposium "Culture and Heritage"

Symposium "Culture and Heritage: Strengthening Relations between East and West" September 26, Moscow Symposium on cultural diplomacy "Culture and heritage: strengthening Relations between East and West" which was carried out together with the Berlin Institute of Cultural Diplomacy (Germany) was held in Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. The participants of the symposium were welcomed by the academician of RAS V. M. Filippov, Rector of the RUDN University and by Mark S. Donfrid, Executive Director of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy, who noted the role of cultural diplomacy in defining content of international relations in their speeches. Director-General of multilingual television company "Russia Today" Professor A.L. Nikolov, acting Director of the Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Professor A.A.Gromyko, Director of the Institute of Ethnology and anthropology, academician of RAS V.A.Tishkov, Professor of the Moscow state University A.O.Naumov, Director of the Center for sustainable development of rural territories of the Russian state agrarian University - Moscow agricultural Academy named after. K.A.Timiryazev Professor A.V.Merzlov, Professor of the Department of National and Federative relations of the Russian Academy of national economy and state service under the President of the Russian Federation V.V.Shmidt delivered reports at the Symposium. Speakers at the Symposium: representatives of the diplomatic corps, in particular, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Latvia in the Russian Federation Astra Kurme, counselor for political Affairs of the Embassy of India in the Russian Federation Rajgul Srivastave and Director of the Hungarian cultural centre in Moscow Andrash Barani. Reports discussed the formation and overcoming cliches or stereotypes and the role of the media; perception and overcoming cultural difficulties; culture and diplomacy in the world, institutions, problems and prospects of "soft power" of the Russian Federation; the role of culture as a platform of inter-state relations and other issues