On September 4-10, Russia was visited by a group of public figures from Alaska, including representatives of the academic community and non-governmental organisations, members of the Alaska Historical Society and prominent figures of the autocephalous Orthodox Church in America.

The delegation took part in an international conference, The Echo of Russian America: Historical and Cultural Heritage, held at the Yesenin Ryazan State University and organised with the participation of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Government of the Ryazan Region, the Ryazan branch of the Russian Geographical Society and the St Herman Orthodox Seminary in Kodiak, Alaska.

The forum participants were greeted by Vice Governor, First Deputy Chair of the Government of the Ryazan Region Sergey Filimonov; Deputy Chair of the Government of the Ryazan Region Yelena Bunyashina; Chair of the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan of Kaluga and Borovsk Kliment; Director of the Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, academician Valery Tishkov (Chairman of the Organising Committee); and Rector of the Yesenin Ryazan State University Andrey Minayev. Honorary guests of the conference were members of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s interdepartmental working group (IWG) on the preservation of Russian historical and cultural heritage in the United States, including Director of the Russian State Archive Larisa Rogovaya.

The programme also included visits to memorial sites in the Kadomsky, Pronsky, Starozhilovsky and other districts of the Ryazan Region, closely related to the fate of Russian travellers and religious figures who made a great contribution to the development of Alaska and the establishment of secular and Orthodox culture there.

After the conference, some of its American participants arrived in Moscow and were received in the Foreign Ministry. Among the issues discussed was strengthening Russian-US cultural ties, particularly the need to step up cooperation between academic, educational and archival institutions of the two countries.

An agreement was reached to continue contacts, including the participation of IWG representatives and Russian experts in events held by the Alaska Historical Society.