OREANDA-NEWS  Rossotrudnichestvo is stepping up its activities in the Belarusian regions, Yuri Makushin, head of the Rossotrudnichestvo representative office in Belarus, adviser to the Russian Embassy, said in an interview with RIA Novosti. "In the new year we plan to develop even more intensively the whole range of our cultural, humanitarian, historical, social ties with the Republic of Belarus. We plan to work actively not only in Minsk, but also in the Minsk region and other regions," the diplomat said.

The plans for this year are to promote the implementation of both large projects through the central office of Rossotrudnichestvo, such as the exchange programs "New Generation", "Hello, Russia!", the volunteer project "Mission: Good" and many others, including at the regional level.  "We see the interest of partners in expanding cooperation, we see real areas where we can help – both organizationally, informationally, and financially, in order to implement really good projects for the benefit of our countries," Makushin drew attention.

The head stressed that the representative office of Rossotrudnichestvo in Belarus has built good partnerships with trade union organizations, the republican volunteer center, cultural institutions, libraries. "We ourselves, as a rule, do not invent any ideas of our own. Our Belarusian partners have a lot of ideas – they just need a little help in their implementation," the diplomat explained.
As an example, Makushin named a competition of volunteer projects of a social orientation, held together with the Minsk branch of the Russian State Social University (RSSU). "Among the projects that attracted the attention of the jury – in Grodno, on the basis of one of the secondary schools, children make books for visually impaired and blind children, they are literally made by hand. The jury with our participation decided to provide them with financial support. And, no less important, we were able to find them experienced partners in terms of organizing such activities," said the head of the representative office.