Chairman of the Russian Society for Friendship with Cuba Alexey Lavrov spoke about the organization’s recent initiatives and events
The speaker, who for many years was deputy minister of finance of Russia and now teaches at the Higher School of Economics, arrived to the Institute of Geology and Petroleum Technologies today.
The event was part of the RSFC’s tour, From the Cuban Revolution to the Stars: 100 years of Fidel Castro and 65 years of Yury Gagarin’s Flight.
The meeting was joined by Vice-Rector Danis Nurgaliev, Deputy Director for Continuing Education and Industrial Partnerships Ildus Chukmarov, Deputy Director for Academic Affairs Andrey Teryokhin, guests from other institutes, and students.
The Society for Friendship with Cuba was founded in 1965 (then called the All-Soviet Society of Soviet-Cuban Friendship), initially chaired by Yury Gagarin.
Dr Lavrov mentioned the most important milestones of bilateral relations and showed unique excerpts from documentaries about Gagarin’s visit to Cuba in 1961 and Castro’s visit to USSR in 1963.
The Tatarstan Branch of RSFC is one of the most active – chaired for a long time by Dr Chukmarov. Taking the stage, he informed the audience about KFU’s fruitful cooperation with CUPET, the Caribbean nation’s oil company. Since 2015, 293 Cuban professionals received continuing education at KFU, and many research projects have been implemented, including catalysts for enhanced oil extraction at the Boca de Jaruco field.
The meeting concluded with a Q&A session. One of the questions came from a Cuban national, student of environmental management Yandry Jesús Muñoz Labrador.
Later, he commented to the university’s media service, “Kazan Federal University attracted me as one of the best in Russia, I was also interested in the Soviet Union, although I was born after its collapse. My grandparents spoke about the Soviet state a lot. Studying here, I want to understand your country better.”
One of the listeners, Associate Professor Yevgeniya Khramova, invited the international student to visit one of the meetings of the Young Diplomat Student Club, to which he agreed.
“There are many interesting discussions in our club. During a talk with the Cuban student we can speak about sanctions, something which has been systematically imposed upon Cuba for over 60 years, and on Russia since 2014. Some of our students of Spanish language and Latin American politics were present at today’s meeting,” noted the Associate Professor.
