LUGANSK, September 10. /TASS/. Intellectuals in Russia and Western countries should reach out to each other now so they could cooperate after Moscow ends its special operation in Ukraine, said Karine Bechet-Golovko, president of the Comitas Gentium France-Russia association.
The French Club of Moscow held its first off-site meeting in Lugansk on Tuesday. Its participants discussed the universal values of the Russian world, which could be close to people in Western countries.
"We understand that there is an interest to develop cooperation both from foreigners and from our side, which would be to look for these elements of universal values of the Russian world and to structure them. Here’s the first result of the club meeting: Even though there are unfriendly governments now, and the special military operation is underway, <...> that is why we need to develop these bridges between intellectual circles. On these bridges we will be able to build ties again," Bechet-Golovko told TASS.
According to the analyst, in order to establish contacts, work will need to focus on specific individuals rather than hostile Western institutions, which will create certain difficulties. She said it is much easier to build contacts, for example, between universities in Moscow and Paris than to look for individuals in the UK, Italy, the US and France who are ready for dialogue. Bechet-Golovko said informal meetings, such as scientific conferences, could become points of contact with like-minded people from Western countries.
Political scientist Sergey Panteleyev, who is director of the Institute of Russian Abroad, said at the meeting that the culture of the present-day Russian people - the so-called Russian World - incorporates the desire for positive dialogue with all neighboring cultures, especially with those who are ready to support traditional values, such as the ideas of national cultures and sovereign states.
"The Russian World is ready to accept without hostility, as its own, anyone who shares these values. At the same time, Russia will agree only to a mutually beneficial dialogue with Europe and the United States," Panteleyev said.