The first stage of the 13th World Congress of Russian Press holds in Kiev

The first stage of the 13th World Congress of Russian Press was held in Kiev on Wednesday. Some 300 delegates from 61 countries attended it. Taking part in the opening ceremony were Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich, chiefs of the presidential administrations of Russia and Ukraine Sergei Naryshkin and Sergei Levochkin, Director-General of Itar-Tass and President of the World Association of Russian Press (WARP) Vitaly Ignatenko.

Opening the congress Viktor Yanukovich said that every condition for the development of democratic institutions has been created in Ukraine. "To my mind, we have created normal conditions for the development of democratic institutions in our society," the president said. Yanukovich recalled that the law on access to public information had been adopted in the framework of democratic society and was already being implemented.

Addressing representatives of the Russian press, Yanukovich said that "restoration of normal good neighbor strategic relations with Russia is the main task." He believes "the previous policy was not in accord with national interests of the Ukrainian people that have close bonds with Russia." The president expects that the trade turnover with Russia will exceed 50 billion dollars this year. "We have restored the trade turnover with Russia and even exceeded it to some extent last year. I believe, we will surpass the 50 billion dollar mark this year," Yanukovich said. "Ukraine’s main task is to restore strategic relations with Russia," he said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev addressed a congratulatory telegram to the congress. "Your traditional forum is not only an important event for the world information community, but also a good opportunity to consolidate professional ties and exchange experience," says the Russian president’s address to the participants in the congress Sergei Naryshkin read out. "You are to discuss joint projects of the Russian-speaking information space and support of compatriots abroad." The telegram of the Russian president, Naryshkin said, emphasizes particularly that the World Congress is held in the year of the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War." "In this connection I regard as very useful the initiative of the WARP to create the databank on the history of the Second World War. This is particularly topical now that we come up against the attempts to revise the results of the war," the Russian president stated.

In his speech Naryshkin pointed to the exceptional role of the Russian language in the development of the dialogue on the entire space of the Commonwealth of Independent States. "It is gratifying that the Russian-language media actively upholds the interests of our compatriots, providing information about the life and achievements of our country. I am sure that the Russian language will continue to play the exceptional role in the development of the humanitarian dialogue, cooperation and mutual understanding on the entire space of the CIS," he said. "The forum was and remains a good venue for exchange of experience and new ideas, for discussion of perspectives for joint projects," Naryshkin stressed.

He pointed out that this is the second time the Ukrainian capital hosts the forum uniting representatives of the Russian-language media from many countries. The chief of the Russian president’s administration stressed that "Ukraine is among the leaders for the number of books printed in Russian and for the number of Russian-language media among the CIS states. It is estimated that the total imprint of newspapers and magazines in Russian is 32 million copies. Large circulation of the Russian-language media, book publishing and teaching in the Russian language offer broad opportunities to Ukrainian society, particularly young people, to take their bearing in the information space of Russia and countries of the CIS," Naryshkin said.

The delegates of the forum left on Wednesday for Odessa where they will be discussing the main tendencies and new challenges in the media in the course of two days.

The 14th World Congress of Russian Press will be held in Italy: in Rome, Naples and on Capri.

Echo Newspaper Chief Editor Rauf Talishinski, Yeni Azərbaycan Newspaper Chief Editor Hikmet Bataoglu, SƏS Newspaper Chief Editor Bahruz Guliyev, Trend News Agency CEO Ilgar Huseynov, Trend News Agency Deputy Director General Pasha Kesamanski, Olaylar Newspaper Chief Editor Yunus Oguz and others represent Azerbaijan at the event.

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