TASS, April 22./TASS/. TASS and the Russian Foreign Ministry have opened a photo exhibition devoted to the 70th anniversary of the country’s joining UNESCO in front of the news agency’s building at Tverskoy Boulevard in central Moscow.

The exhibition features two dozen historical and contemporary photos reflecting various stages of the country’s long-standing cooperation with UNESCO. These days, as Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted, this partnership is facing serious challenges, as UNESCO has become "subject to politicization, double standards and privatization of the [organization's] secretariat by the West." Therefore, "its mission to entrench the idea of peace protection in people's minds is now more relevant than ever."

The photo exhibition harkens back to the times when the country and UNESCO were able to build an effective and constructive dialogue on a wide range of educational, scientific and cultural issues and avoid politicizing everything, despite the political conjuncture.

Within the framework of the exhibition, one can see how Soviet and Russian leaders received UNESCO’s directors general in Moscow, photographic evidence of international expeditions in the Arctic and to the Angara River, as well as pictures taken at international symposiums and UNESCO festivals held in Russia.

A significant part of the exhibition is devoted to the most famous events at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, including the speech of the first man in space Yuri Gagarin at the 14th International Astronautics Congress in 1963.

Some photos show the joint work with UNESCO to protect Russian and world cultural monuments. Among the other photos, TASS photographers captured a classical music concert by St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater Orchestra where the ruins of ancient Palmyra served as the setting.