Representatives of Russian Mass Media in Belarus

An annual press tour for the representatives of Russia’s federal and regional mass media around the Republic of Belarus started on September 29th, 2009. As a rule, this event provokes keen interest among Russian journalists. This year has not become an exception. According to organizers, there were so many applications that they even had to make some selection. Such “rush demand for everything Belarusian” one more time proved both the deep interest in our country taken by Russians and at the same time evident lack of information about Belarus.

An annual press tour for the representatives of Russia’s federal and regional mass media around the Republic of Belarus started on September 29^th, 2009. As a rule, this event provokes keen interest among Russian journalists. This year has not become an exception. According to organizers, there were so many applications that they even had to make some selection. Such “rush demand for everything Belarusian” one more time proved both the deep interest in our country taken by Russians and at the same time evident lack of information about Belarus.

As a result, journalists’ group included representatives of such leading federal mass media as Russian Information Agency “Novosti”, “Izvestiya” and “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”. Major regions of Russia – Belgorodchina, Bryanschina, Smolenschina, Kuban, Siberia, the Caucasus, Stavropolie, Kaliningrad, etc. – are represented as well. On the whole, about 90 journalists from 50 regions take part in the tour. Besides printed mass media, these are 10 TV channels and 10 radio stations of the Russian Federation.

The programme of the press tour which will last till October 2^nd is quite eventful. The journalists will visit joint operations-strategic manoeuvres of the two countries “Zapad-2009”. Moreover, they will have an opportunity to familiarize themselves with socio-cultural and industrial spheres of Belarusian backwoods. Mass media representatives will also visit industrial and cultural entities of Vitebsk region.

The culmination of the press tour will be a traditional press conference of Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko scheduled for October 2^nd. From previous experience one can conjecture that the event will become an interesting, open and frank discussion.

The tour is organized by the President's Administration of the Republic of Belarus, Standing Committee of the Union State, Embassy of the Republic of Belarus to the Russian Federation and state agency “National Press Centre of the Republic of Belarus”.