The theme of the government hour is “The development of cooperation with the CIS countries in the humanitarian sphere and strengthening the general traditional spiritual and moral values.”
Alexey Overchuk spoke at a meeting of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in the framework of a government hour
From the transcript:
A. OVERCHUK: Dear Vyacheslav Viktorovich, dear deputies of the State Duma, dear colleagues!
Allow me to thank for the opportunity to speak at a plenary meeting of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. I would like to especially thank you, dear Vyacheslav Viktorovich, for the decision to devote a government hour to the development of cooperation with the CIS countries in the humanitarian sphere and strengthening the general traditional spiritual and moral values. I would also like to thank Oleg Viktorovich Morozov for his report.
This topic suggests that our president called literally recently at a meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation by moral landmarks that are laid in us by our ancestors for centuries. It is these spiritual and moral values that underlie our civilization and identity. For over the centuries, we and the peoples of the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States have developed together and formed a general civilizational space. And it is precisely these landmarks that our president said, at the heart of a person’s life, a family, it is they who form our culture and a sovereign worldview, and a worldview, and we talk a lot about this, resistant to attempts to impose someone else’s will to us. This equally applies not only to us, but also to our closest neighbors, about the relations with which we will talk today.
The existence of our general civilizational space, which holds the language of interethnic communication, common to all countries of the Commonwealth, is our undoubted advantage that allows us to develop together.
For our country, this topic is especially relevant. At a meeting of the Russian Security Council, which took place on June 10, 2025, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin emphasized its significance to strengthen sovereignty, as well as protect the national interests and security of our country. The countries of the Commonwealth are our closest neighbors. In fact, the nature of relations with our neighbors depends on our possibilities for the development of our own economy and improving the living standards of our people.
In the modern world, where deglobalization processes occur, where ruptures of supply chains are underway, where fragmentation of the global economy occurs, macro -regions are formed, a multipolar world occurs, and, forming a general economic, cultural, humanitarian space, we thereby form our common pole in this arise of a multipolar world.
The peculiarity of our relations is given by the fact that until recently the CIS state was parts of one large country. Today, these are independent countries that build their sovereignty, but pragmatically recognizing the role of our country as a center of economic gravity, on which they also depend on economic well -being, based on the availability of the Russian market.
It is from these positions that we build our relationships in the economic sphere. The growth rate of the EAEU and the CIS economies exceed the mid -Issue and significantly exceed the indicators of the European Union.
Any decent politician or civil servant from the CIS countries, regardless of where he received his education, if he is honest with himself and defends the national interests of his country, perfectly understands what significance the difference in the modern world has between 4.6% of GDP and 0.8% of GDP and what actually means the fourth place of the Russian economy in the world in purchasing parity.
We create such integration conditions that allow mutual trade relations between the CIS countries to develop at a much higher pace than with trading partners from other countries.
At the same time, these figures indicate that it is still easier for us to communicate with each other, speak with each other in the same language, and strengthen connections. And this is evidence that we are still in one civilizational field, which we strive to protect and develop.
It was very interesting about the relationship of the economy and society that the Holy Patriarch Kirill said recently, he determined that the economy is a derivative of society, and is developing in its context.
Indeed, the successful development of the economies of the CIS countries and the well -being of our citizens depends on the interaction of people living in our countries, on their ability to maintain contacts and communications. Without this, development is impossible. This, in turn, depends on the society in which these people are formed, which affects their worldview and the system of spiritual and moral values. And this is already a humanitarian sphere.
The Government of the Russian Federation works in all areas of humanitarian cooperation.
First of all, this, of course, is the support and promotion of the Russian language abroad. Language not only underlies human communication. Language makes us those who are. The formation of us as personalities depends on what books we read, by what textbooks we learn, who teaches us, what teachers, in what environment we are brought up, how we are affected by culture, sports, healthcare, and the media. In fact, we are talking about the education of a person, and today we began to implement this approach in the CIS countries, from kindergarten to its formation as a professional in demand by society.
I can’t help but say that it was the CIS countries that supported the idea of President of Kazakhstan Kasym-Zhomart Kemelevich Tokaev to create an international organization in the Russian language, which will deal with the promotion and support of our language around the world. The final work on the launch of this organization is now carried out by the media – participants of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
This is a comprehensive approach to interaction with the CIS states, which is realized by all federal executive bodies. All this requires the depth of study, which is available only when these issues are dealt with by specialists who are in the relevant departments.
The human rights sphere is of particular importance in modern conditions. She was monopolized for a long time with our enemies. Here, a noticeable contribution is made by the CIS Human Rights Commission under the chairmanship of Tatyana Nikolaevna Moskalkova. The commission began work in November 2023 and has already established itself as an authoritative body for the exchange of experience, integrating efforts and building joint work of human rights institutions in humanitarian cooperation and strengthening general spiritual and moral values.
Touching on the issues of education. The work is carried out on the widest range of issues.
In the life of any person, the main thing is his teacher. Despite the very difficult conditions of the last five years, we managed to increase the number of our teachers abroad by 5.5 times. As you can see, in the absolute numbers, taking into account the scale of our countries, this is still a little, but this is a very important dynamics that indicates the priorities of our work.
Speaking about teachers abroad who promote the Russian language, I cannot but mention our volunteers who are very actively involved in this work today. For joint educational organizations – a fundamental place in our work today we give schools working in foreign countries in accordance with Russian educational standards. Our presence today is noticeable in Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
We have to compete with other countries, and in order to preserve our civilizational space, we must be the best. The fact that this is so is indicated by the figures of the competition for one place in these educational institutions. Just three weeks ago, I was in Tajikistan – 93 people per place, which is better indicated by citizens of these countries the advantages of the Russian education system.
It is also noticed by neighboring countries and turn to us with requests to extend our education system to them. In Kyrgyzstan, we begin the construction of nine schools. In Kazakhstan, we reach an agreement on the construction of three schools. We also pay no less importance to the organization of our schools under the embassies of the Russian Federation for children of our employees, for children of foreign institutions of the CIS countries.
In the field of higher education, work is also carried out in all areas – fairs and exhibitions of Russian universities, quotas for training foreign citizens, branches of Russian universities abroad, Slavic universities, geoinformation systems are used, international conferences of young scientists and students, and the CIS youth forum is held.
Over five years, we have increased the number of quotas for foreign students 1.8 times, primarily from the CIS countries. Russian higher education is popular with our neighbors. Almost a quarter of a million students from the countries of the Commonwealth are studying for us. For constant attention to this topic and systemic support for work in this direction, I would like to thank the leadership and all deputies of the State Duma.
Branches of Russian universities abroad – in nine countries of the near abroad, including Mongolia. 30 branches of the best Russian universities. The largest number in Uzbekistan.
Slavic universities are very popular. We increase our support here. Now the government is preparing decisions regarding the construction of the modern campus of the Russian-Kyrgyz (Slavic) University in Bishkek. President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Nurgozhievich Zhaparov allocated about 30 hectares of land in a prestigious area of the city under the campus. We strive to ensure that he becomes the best university in Central Asia.
Separately, I want to thank the State Duma for the decisions made on the additional financial support of Slavic universities. Thanks to these decisions in the federal budget for 2024 and for the planning period 2025 and 2026, 1 billion 850 million rubles are provided for the development of these universities.
Culture. Russian culture is unchanged in the countries of the Commonwealth, and our Ministry of Culture conducts tremendous work in all directions, Olga Borisovna Lyubimova will dwell on this topic in more detail. I would also like to emphasize the important role that the International Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation of the CIS participants plays here.
A large, serious and diverse work is carried out along the Rossotrudnichestvo line on the basis of our Russian houses. Evgeny Aleksandrovich Primakov will tell about this in detail.
Well, of course, the media. An important role in the promotion of our spiritual and moral values they play throughout the CIS space. We carefully ensure that our television channels, our companies engaged in broadcasting, content, have the opportunity to work on the territory of the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Dear deputies!
The general civilizational space that we have together with the CIS states is our advantage, and we are working to preserve and strengthen it. This is a delicate job. The price of errors is very high here, therefore, all steps should turn strictly, not from the point of view of short -term benefits or interests, but from the point of view of their long -term effect and taking into account the entire complex of features of our relations with our closest neighbors – fraternal countries and peoples.
Thank you for your attention.