MPs gave reports on the meeting’s agenda.
Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev and Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs Grigory Karasin spoke at the meeting of the Permanent Commission of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly (IPA CIS) on Political Issues and International Cooperation. The conference took place in Samarkand.
Konstantin Kosachev reported on an application from the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) regarding its participation in the IPA CIS work.
The Russian Senator talked about the regular working contacts between CIS MPs and their Latin American counterparts.
Konstantin Kosachev recommended that his colleagues support the application by the President of PARLACEN and give it the opportunity to take part in the work of IPA CIS with observer status. He said that it would be possible to come to terms on the parameters of cooperation with PARLACEN representatives at the next IPA CIS session.
Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs Grigory Karasin devoted his speech to the need to preserve historical memory and reject unacceptable attempts to falsify history.
Mr Karasin noted that a policy of “decommunisation” is regularly used to erase the memory of the liberator soldiers in Poland, Latvia and Ukraine, while replacing the heroes of the Great Patriotic War with collaborationists and Nazi accomplices.
“We can only oppose this through a concerted effort, by working together to preserve the historical memory of the Victory of our nations over Nazi Germany,” Grigory Karasin emphasised.
Mr Karasin pointed out the fact that the Russian Foreign Ministry regularly releases strong and unequivocal protests against the removal of memorials to Soviet warriors in Poland, the Baltic countries, Ukraine and the Czech Republic. The Republic of Belarus also protests this. “We hope other CIS states will take such an active stance,” he said. He recalled that the graves and monuments of Soviet warriors in Europe bear the names of representatives of all Soviet peoples that sacrificed their lives for the liberation of the East European countries.
Grigory Karasin emphasised that the CIS MPs are making their own contribution to countering the falsification of history and protecting the memory of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War. Thus, he noted that the IPA CIS passed model laws on perpetuating the memory of those who died in the defence of the Fatherland, on patriotic education, and on the unacceptable actions to revitalise Nazism and to glorify Nazi criminals and their accomplices. CIS national parliaments use these laws as models when drafting their own legislation.
The senator also recalled the Russian-Belarusian Memory Train joint project in which 200 Russian and Belarusian high school students took part. The number of participants in this project is expected to increase next year.
“Preserving the memory of the Great Victory depends on the current generation of those who live on the land liberated from the Nazis. Only together we will be able to resist the attempts by revisionist forces to falsify history and revitalise Nazism and support their accomplices,” Mr Karasin said in conclusion.
The IA CIS programme also included a Youth Parliamentary Assembly session. Member of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building Nikolay Vladimirov gave a speech there.
The senator spoke about promising areas of government youth policy, youth employment and ways to encourage the socioeconomic activities of young people between 15 and 24 years old.
He said that now they were reviewing draft laws initiated by Russian senators and State Duma deputies, which are aimed at expanding opportunities for the practical education of students. Thus, a number of amendments are being introduced into the Federal Law on Education in the Russian Federation. They provide for an opportunity to create education-and-production complexes in secondary vocational schools where students can engage in profit-making activities under the implemented academic programmes.
“It is suggested that the profits gained as a result of these activities should be channelled exclusively into the development of education-and-production complexes and education institutions. Amendments also give junior and senior-year students at secondary vocational education institutions the right to act as teachers under the academic programmes of preschool and primary general education and also under additional general educational programmes.”
The senator also voiced the proposal to introduce a single standard for mentoring young professionals in employment, at the legislative level. This will be supported by the expert community, he noted.