OREANDA-NEWS. June 25, 2008. President Toomas Hendrik Ilves and Evelin Ilves will travel to Russia on a working visit in order to participate in the 5th World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples in Khanty-Mansiysk.

The Estonian Head of State will speak on the opening day of the World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples, which will also be attended by the Presidents of Finland, Hungary, and Russia. President Ilves along with Evelin Ilves will also participate in the cultural program in Khanty-Mansiysk and its environs.

This time, the main topic of the World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples—with the participation of about 300 delegates that represent 21 Finno-Ugric peoples and the same number of observers—will be “Unity and a Changing World”. Between the opening and closing sessions of the Congress, five sections will operate: “Ethno-policies and Justice”, “Culture, Language and Education”, “Media and the Press”, and “Health, Demographics and the Family”.

While in Khanty-Mansiysk, President Ilves plans to meet with his Russian colleague Dmitry Medvedev.

On Monday, June 30th, in the atrium of the Library for Foreign Literature in Moscow, the Estonian Head of State and Evelin Ilves will inaugurate a bust of Professor Juri Lotman, for many years a professor at the University of Tartu and one of the founders of the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics. President Ilves also plans to meet with Alexius II, the Patriarch of Moscow and All-Russia.

The Estonian Head of State will arrive back in Estonia late in the evening of Monday, June 30th.