A monument to a great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin was unveiled in Iraq, in the University of Baghdad.

      Members of the Pushkin section of the Union of Russian Writers and Russian diplomats attended the inauguration ceremony in the University of Baghdad, as well as the monument’s author - Nikolai Kuznetsov-Muromsky and representatives of Russian oil comapny Gazprom-Neft, which sponsored the sculpture.

      The ceremony's speakers discussed the necessity to overcome stagnation in Russian-Iraqui relations, to develop cultural, educational and other links. There were some concrete proposals, for example, the opening of a joint Russian-Iraqui University.

      “The inauguration of the monument is evidence of good and strong relations between Russia and Iraq, a symbol of strengthening cultural ties,” Professor Riyadh Aziz, assistant president of the University of Baghdad, said.

      “Students will ask us: who is this? Why does a monument to this person stand here? And we will tell about them about Pushkin’s works and say that he is a great son of Russia, to which the Iranian people are linked by years of friendship and cooperation,” Samir Husein, the head of Baghdad University’s Department of Literature, said.

      Recall that in 2009 Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani presented a bust of Iraqi poet and public activist Muhammad Mahdi al-Zawahiri to the Russia’s Voronezh State University. In reply, Culture Bureau of Iraqui embassy in Russian Federation decided to present the Alexander Pushkin's bust to the University of Baghdad, because it has the Russian language department and a library of Russian literature.

      The Pushkin section of the Union of Russian Writers and Russian diplomats headed by Igor Novosyolov has already unveiled about 15 monuments of Russian writers and poets in different cities of the world. 

Sources: Vesti.ru Rosbalt The Moscow News Image: RIA Novosti

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