XIX World Congress of Russian Press

The XIX World Congress of Russian Press took place in Minsk on July 11-15, 2017. It gathered together more than 300 participating mass media from 54 countries of the world.

The decision to hold the next global forum of the Russian language press in the capital of the Republic of Belarus was made with the support of the President Alexander Lukashenko, who had expressed many times his support of the Russian language as a common cultural property and means of communication.

The main theme of the XIX Congress of Russian Press was "Partnership in the name of the future: priorities of the modern civilization".

The President of Russia Vladimir Putin sent written greetings to the participants and guests of the Congress.

Greetings were also sent by the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, the Chairperson of the Council of the Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko, the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus Kirill.

The President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko took part in the Congress and gave a speech. The keynotes of his speech included the confirmation of the very important role of the Russian language as the common heritage of the whole post-Soviet space, the acknowledgment of the supranational status of the Russian language, the intention of the leadership of Belarus to continue comprehensive development of bilingualism as a guaranty of political and national consent within the country, as the most important factor of social stability and cultural perspectives.

The participants also debated the issues of the current state of Russian-language media abroad.

Besides plenary meetings, the forum agenda included visiting a number of regions of the Republic of Belarus (Vitebsk, Polotsk), participating in the Slaviansky Bazaar festival in Vitebsk as well as a program of familiarization with the unique production of OJSC BelAZ.