MOSCOW, September 1. /TASS/. Russian State University for the Humanities and the Russian-Austrian Commission of Historians, with the support of the Russian-Austrian public forum "Sochi Dialogue", has launched a scientific and educational bachelor's program dubbed Russia-Austria: history, politics, economics, culture. The official opening of the program took place on Tuesday at the university, a TASS correspondent reports.

"As part of the Russia-Austria educational program, leading Austrian diplomats, cultural figures, politicians and scientists will begin to conduct training sessions in Moscow, and we, the Sochi Dialogue, were honored to support this initiative," said Andrei Fursenko, Presidential Aide and co-chairman of the Sochi Dialogue Coordination Committee at the event. 

As the rector of the RSUH Alexander Bezborodov noted, 17 students will be the first to enroll in the program. As part of the training, student and teacher exchange programs with the Austrian University of Graz are planned.

"I think that the Austrian direction is the most tolerant and promising for Russia today, and RSUH will direct its efforts as much as possible so that this program has a serious European and, in the future, a world scale," he said, adding that recruitment for the program will still be carried out every two years with the possibility of further annual admission.

Alexander Chubaryan, co-chairman of the Russian-Austrian Commission of Historians, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, also noted the importance of this educational project's launch. "Our country lacks a lot of regional specialists and the fact that specialists in the field of Austria will now be trained is a great contribution to our educational and scientific community," he noted.