MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/. Russia’s agency for international humanitarian cooperation (Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation) would like to open Russian research and cultural centers in South Africa and Brazil, the agency’s CEO Yevgeny Primakov told TASS.

"We would be glad if we had full-fledged, large-scale cultural centers in Brazil and South Africa. So far, unfortunately, we are represented here and there by individuals who work with us as part of embassies or consulates general. But this is always a matter of intergovernmental coordination," the CEO pointed out.

Primakov recalled that the agency for international humanitarian cooperation is not a foundation or a non-governmental organization, but a federal executive body, which means that it can open cultural centers only where there is an intergovernmental agreement. "This is a process that the agency does not control, it is the Foreign Ministry and, accordingly, a government commission, an intergovernmental commission. We’ve established our presence in Ethiopia, in Iran, but we haven’t been able to do so in Saudi Arabia, again, due to the absence of an intergovernmental agreement," the CEO said.