OREANDA-NEWS. November 30, 2010. Gomel may become the Commonwealth Capital of Culture in 2011, deputy head of the humanitarian cooperation department of the Presidential Executive Office of Russia Sergei Kazantsev told media on 30 November. He is taking part in a session of the CIS experts on discussing an interstate program Commonwealth Capitals of Culture in Minsk.

In 2011 the CIS two countries (Belarus and Russia) plan to present their cities as cultural capitals. The Belarusian side will present Gomel as a city with good infrastructure, Sergei Kazantsev said. “Yet I am not authorized to name the Russian city,” the expert noted. He also stressed that the cultural capital of the Commonwealth can be any city of the country except for its capital.

Sergei Kazantsev also informed that those cities that will be awarded the CIS cultural capital status will organize a marathon of cultural events. The project envisages an annual concentration of resources in one of the cities in the CIS and development of the bright, rich and diverse international program.

The aim of the project is primarily to bring together cultural resources and expand cultural ties between the CIS countries and promote further integration. Implementation of the program will create a favorable climate for economic and political cooperation, and enhance the status of the Commonwealth in the international arena. The concept of the program provides for four groups of projects: projects from the CIS countries, national projects, ‘guest’ projects, infrastructure projects.

The supreme governing body of the CIS Capital of Culture program will be Inter-State Council, which will include authorized representatives of the Culture Ministries of the CIS countries and independent experts in cultural policy from each country. It is assumed that the document will be implemented successively in each of the CIS countries.