On March 17, 2026, a working meeting was held in Minsk between CIS Secretary-General Sergey Lebedev and Co-Chairman of the Board of the Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation of the CIS Member States, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for International Cultural Cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoy.
During the meeting, the parties discussed issues related to the development of interaction between the Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation and the CIS Council for Humanitarian Cooperation with the Commonwealth Executive Committee.
It was noted that in recent years, cultural and humanitarian interaction within the Commonwealth, according to numerous assessments by CIS country leaders, has been developing dynamically. This year, work will continue on the preparation and implementation of a number of new projects in this area, in particular the Plan of Priority Humanitarian Events for 2027–2028, a package of documents on cooperation in tourism, projects in science, education, sports, and youth work.
The “Main Cooperation Activities of the CIS Member States in the Field of Culture for 2026–2028” are at the final stage of being signed through a working procedure by members of the CIS Heads of Government Council.
This year, Turkmenistan holds the chairmanship in the Commonwealth. In this regard, in the spring, the next Forum of Creative and Scientific Intelligentsia, as well as meetings of the Council for Humanitarian Cooperation and the CIS Council for Cultural Cooperation, will take place in Ashgabat.
One of the most important topics of the meeting was discussion of celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the 20th anniversary of the Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation.
Sergey Lebedev emphasized that the CIS Executive Committee highly appreciates the Fund’s contribution to the development of the Commonwealth. The success of many cultural and humanitarian projects is due to the financial and organizational support from the Fund.
In this regard, the Russian side initiated the inclusion of the issue regarding the Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation in the draft agenda of the upcoming meetings of the CIS Foreign Ministers Council and the CIS Heads of State Council, in order to once again emphasize the successes and achievements of the Fund.
Also participating in the meeting were:
- CIS First Deputy Secretary-General Igor Petrishenko;
- CIS Deputy Secretary-General Nurlan Seitimov;
- Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the CIS Statutory and Other Bodies Alexander Lukashevich;
- Executive Director of the Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation Anatoly Iksanov.