DUSHANBE, October 20, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- An official opening of Russian Center of Russia’s Russkiy Mir (Russian World) National Foundation at Tajik State Teachers’ Training University named after Sadriddin Ayni in Dushanbe will be held on October 22,  according to the Russian Embassy in Dushanbe.

The Russkiy Mir National Foundation has started implementation of the project for creating a network of Russian centers that are aimed at preserving and popularizing Russian language and Russian culture in other countries this year.  The first Russian center was opened in Yerevan, Armenia. 

In Dushanbe, it will be the third Russian center; the first Russian center was established at Tajik Institute of Foreign Languages in Dushanbe on June 10 and the second one was established at Russia-Tajik Slavic University (RTSU) on September 18.  

To date, Russian centers have been opened Yerevan, Dushanbe, Kant and Osh in Kyrgyzstan, Astana and Ust-Kamenogorsk in Kazakhstan.  Besides, the have reached agreements on opening the Russian centers in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Italy, Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania, Uzbekistan, Guatemala, Hungary, Indonesia and some other countries.     

The Russian center is a resource center and the program for creating Russian centers includes providing them with libraries (more than 1,000 items, including encyclopedias, reference books, fictions, textbooks, etc), and collection of multimedia products (movies, audio-books, educational supplies). 

The Russkiy Mir National Foundation was established by Russian president’s decree of June 2007.  The Foundation is a Russian analogue of such well-known institutions as the British Council and the Alliance franchise.  Known Russian political scientist Vyacheslav Nikonov was appointed to head the Foundation.  It was the first time in the history of Russia that a non-commercial organization has been set up by a presidential decree and co-founded by two ministries at once - the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education.