Tolerance

For historical reasons Russia was for a long time isolated from the rest of Europe. Now, these barriers do not longer exist, however, the lack of financial and technical possibilities and also language barriers hinder national organizations to establish direct contact with international organizations and foreign non-governmental organizations. The Center for Interethnic Cooperation assumed its role as mediator for the realization of such contacts. The Center organized activities on the international scene among which can be highlighted:

• Meetings of the leaders of national communities with delegates of the European Parliament and with the leadership of the Representation of the European Union in Russia

• Meetings of the leaders of national communities with representatives of the Council of Europe and the OSCE

• Visit to Great Britain of representatives of the authorities of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar

• Participation of specialists from Great-Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, USA, Czech Republi and Switzerland in trainings and seminars of the Center for Interethnic Cooperation

• Visits for experience exchange:

• • To Great Britain by authorities of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Krasnodar, Nizhniy Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Samara and also representatives of national associations and employees of the militia of Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Krasnodar and Samara;

  • To the Netherlands by young representatives of national associations of Moscow, Astrakhan, Irkutsk, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Pyatigorsk, Smolensk and Samara;

  • To Italy and Malta by women of national and gender organizations of Astrakhan, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Krasnodar, Petrozavodsk, Samara and Yaroslavl.

Participation in international conferences, seminars and trainings:

• Representatives of the Center for Interethnic Cooperation took part in conferences and seminars of the UN, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the European network against racism (United for Intercultural Action) which were held in Amsterdam, Alma-Ata, Baku, Bucharest, Warsaw, Gothenburg, Durban, Geneva, London, Madrid, Milan, New York, Paris and Strasburg.

The Center for Interethnic Cooperation has partners: NGOs in Great-Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and US with which we implemented joint projects.

Starting from 2001 volunteers from Austria, Great-Britain, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Canada, China, Pakistan, Poland, the US and Switzerland are working in the Center for Interethnic Cooperation (http://www.interethnic.org/razdeli/volunteers.html). They not only translate our texts and projects, but also take very active part in the organizations and implementation of our trainings. In fact, they became members of our international team and helped us to really become the Center for Interethnic Cooperation.

They helped us to show that there are not good and bad peoples, but just others, who were not lucky to live in a normal family, to receive normal education and who were not surrounded by loving and caring people in their childhood.