Special Representative of Russian President Mikhail Shvydkoy: Russia needs to enter new cultural markets

Special Representative of Russian President on International Cultural Cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoy said that Russia needs to enter new cultural markets. He said this in an interview with TASS.

"And today, if we talk about markets, it is, first of all, China," he specified. Mikhail Shvydkoy added that market mechanisms with the CIS countries in this regard require elaboration.

"Relations in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries should be maintained in the same way as cultural contacts in BRICS and SCO. In the near future, until a new economic mechanism is developed, we need serious state support for all projects with those countries where we want to promote Russian culture"

Mikhail Shvydkoy Special Representative of Russian President on International Cultural Cooperation

Mikhail Shvydkoy said that the big concert of Russian and Chinese folk orchestra in May this year in Beijing will start two-year cultural exchanges between Russia and China.

The special representative said that relations with China in the field of culture are "developing unusually intensively" and noted the high popularity in the country of Russian symphony orchestras, soloists and ballet dancers. He added that a large Russian-Chinese circus programme would open in early May, in which a significant part of the acts would be presented by artists from Russia.

"It will open in a completely new space, it is a whole circus village that was built in the south of China. Quite a unique place that will attract the attention of tourists," said the special representative of the president.

Russian musicals are also in great demand in China, Shvydkoy told about the successful tour of the musical "Anna Karenina" of the Moscow Operetta Theatre in the republic.

He noted that in the near future a new institution of higher education will appear in China on the basis of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory and a Chinese university. We are talking about a full-fledged new higher education institution where teachers from Russia will teach.

"This is a very serious and long-term educational project, which is patronised by the Chinese leadership. It will be taught by pedagogues who are graduates of the Moscow Conservatoire and who know traditional Russian teaching methods. It is the same one that world musical culture is proud of. As Rector Alexander Sokolov told me, this will not affect the composition of teachers and the quality of education in Moscow," Shvydkoy said.

The special representative of the president noted that the educational institution will be oriented to the Chinese audience.

Earlier it was reported that according to the joint decision of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2024-2025 will be held cross cultural years of Russia and China.