MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/. The work of the Russian House in Damascus has been suspended until better times, Head of Russia's Agency for International Humanitarian Cooperation Yevgeny Primakov told TASS.
"It has been suspended due to well-known circumstances - the regime change in Syria. The Russian Embassy, as we all know, continues its work. However, by the decision of the embassy we withdrew our staff from Syria due to the events that took place there - after all, in every country of our presence we are guided by the opinion of the embassy in the first place," he said. "The operation of the house is on hold, no work is being done there for now. We are waiting for the moment when the security environment allows us to return and resume operations."
Primakov also noted that recruiting students from Syria under the scholarship of the Russian government has become quite challenging, so this practice has been paused for the time being. "We need to know whether these people have the proper documents, who these people actually are, and how prepared they are for [exchange studies]. But how are we going to recruit them without being present there [in Syria]?"
Therefore, Syrian students are now recruited mainly out of those who are already studying in Russia," Primakov explained. "For example, if they were pursuing bachelor's degrees, under this quota they would progress to master's programs or to the next steps - apply to graduate school or engage in some other activity. Besides, we consider the candidacies of those Syrians who are willing to enter Russian universities and are already abroad, like in Lebanon or in European countries."
"I think that we will in any case solve the issue with the scholarship for higher education for Syrians. Then we will keep an eye on the development of the security situation," Primakov said.