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Interest towards studies of Russian re-emerging in US, says ambassador

MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. Interests towards studies of the Russian language is re-emerging in the U.S., Ambassador John Tefft said on Wednesday as he answered questions from the Russian audiences in VKontakte social net.

"It's true that the interest towards the studies of the Russian language, history and politics kept changing over years, since the interest towards different parts of the world kept changing, too, in the wake of the international situation but I think today's developments works towards a revival of this interest," Tefft said.

He disagreed with the claims that the U.S. did not have enough experts on Russia among its scholars and diplomats. As a counter-argument, he cited himself, saying he focused on Russia and the former Soviet republic for the greater part of his career at the Department of State, which started out more than forty years ago.

Tefft believes that his predecessor at the ambassadorial position in Moscow, Michael McFaul, who is a professor at Stanford University, is also one of the highly expert specialists in the field of Russian studies.

"Many bright young holders of bachelors' and masters' degrees compete annually for traineeship courses at our embassy that are grants to U.S. students," he said.

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