Russia would like other countries to have an unbiased attitude toward it, Konstantin Kosachyov, the head of Russia’s international humanitarian cooperation agency Rossotrudnichestvo, said.
“Rossotrudnichestvo… should form an objective and unbiased attitude toward Russia,” Kosachyov told the Kommersant business daily.
“That would be far better than what we have had until recently,” he said.
Representatives of Kosachyov’s agency, whose full name is the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation, will meet with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in the Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday.
Promotion of Russia’s positive image in the world and expansion of Russia’s cultural presence will be central on the discussion agenda.
“The world has a ‘presumption of Russia’s guilt’ – when events occurring in our country are interpreted not in our favor,” Kosachyov lamented, adding that the “political, public and humanitarian situation in the country is… in many respects better than in many other states.”
Rossotrudnichestvo was established in 2008 by then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as an analogue of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to promote Russia’s influence in former Soviet republics.