Naryshkin opens festival of Russian culture in Japan
TOKYO. June 2 (Interfax) - Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin opened Festival of Russian Culture in Japan 2014 and read Russian President Vladimir Putin's welcome to the guests and participants in the festival.
"The good relations between our countries have always formed good-neighborly relations between our peoples. Today the need to maintain a good atmosphere is felt especially acutely, and therefore, when we open the Russian seasons in Japan in 2014, we make another step in towards the establishment of mutual understanding and development of humanitarian relations between our countries," Naryshkin at the opening ceremony of the festival on Monday.
Naryshkin read the guests and participants in the festival an address by Russian President Vladimir Putin, which, among other things, stated that the main characteristic of this festival is active participation by young performers in it.
"Our Japanese friends will become familiar with the work by choir singers and dancing school students," Naryshkin said.
Naryshkin said Putin said he is confident that "such large-scale interesting and really beautiful projects play an important role in the development of Russian-Japanese cultural and humanitarian relations and help strengthen mutual understanding and confidence between our people."
The Russian culture festival in Japan has been conducted every year for nine years now. The Russian organizational committee of the festival has been headed by Naryshkin since 2006.
