MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will deliver a speech on Wednesday during a plenary session of the 6th World Congress of Russian Compatriots.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is also expected to attend the two-day forum, to be held at the World Trade Center in Moscow. The conference will gather 400 delegates from 98 countries, representing regional groups of Russian compatriots living abroad, as well as high-ranking political and public figures.
The previous meeting of the congress was held in Moscow in November 2015. During the upcoming conference, the participants are expected to sum up the results of their activities in the past three years and outline guidelines for future cooperation. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin earlier said that the discussion would focus on countering anti-Russian sentiments and Russophobia.
Significance of congress
Commenting on the upcoming event, Karasin underlined the forum’s importance in establishing channels for cooperation between the Russian diaspora and Moscow.
"The congress is necessary for strengthening the ties of compatriots with their historic motherland," the diplomat said. "Leaders and activists of the diaspora have send numerous letters to the ministry, in which they express their desire to adopt pressing and future-oriented decisions during the congress."
According to the Russian diplomat, the agenda of the congress was shaped not only by governmental commissions but also by members of regional conferences and the public, who could submit their proposals via social networking sites.
"Jointly, we managed to discover an array of sensitive topics. This includes further consolidation of the Russian community abroad, the issues of protecting the rights and legitimate interests of the diaspora, problems of Russian-language education abroad, the development of our compatriots’ media, including electronic ones," the deputy foreign minister said.
Another important issue to be raised at the forum will be the Russian diaspora’s life amid rapidly changing international situation and tensions between Russia and the West.
World Congress of Russian Compatriots
The first World Congress of Russian Compatriots was held in Moscow in November 2001. The opening ceremony of the event, which gathered delegates from 47 countries, was attended by Vladimir Putin.
Starting from 2006, the event is held once in three years. Every congress gathers several hundreds of delegates. Different editions of the congress were attended by the head of state, the foreign minister, parliamentary speakers and the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
Traditionally, the event focuses on measures to promote Russian language and culture abroad, consolidate the Russian diaspora abroad. Special attention is paid to the problem of falsification of history, first of all to attemts to play down the role of the Soviet Union in the victory over the Nazi Germany.