Natalia Kotseva informed the National Assembly’s standing delegation to the IAO on the goals, composition and activities of the Fund she represents. The International Foundation for the Unity of Orthodox Peoples was founded in 1995 by Valery Alexeev, with the blessing of His Beatitude the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Alexy II. The Fund works on strengthening the ties among orthodox peoples, particularly focusing on cultural and social cooperation. The Fund enjoys close cooperation with the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy, especially since the Fund’s President Alexeev is also a political advisor at the IAO.

The National Assembly’s standing delegation to the IAO showed interest in the Fund’s activities in Serbia, as well as its other spheres of activity, and Kotseva pointed out that the Fund is working on bringing Russian and Serbian culture closer together, that it has a prominent humanitarian dimension, that it helps children from Kosovo-Metohija, churches and monasteries, works on the promotion of the Russian language and orthodox culture (via the Children’s Club at St. Sava elementary school in Belgrade), organises exhibitions, artists’ colonies, concerts, roundtables, helps student exchanges. In these activities the Fund cooperates closely with the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Belgrade, the Russian Home, the Russian-Serbian Friendship Club and others.

The National Assembly’s standing delegation to the IAO endorsed the Fund’s activities and expressed belief that the good cooperation would continue in future.