The message reads, in part:
“It is symbolic that this congress is being held in Ufa, the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan: this highlights the unifying role of the Russian language.
Your forum, which brings together philologists, linguists and teachers, aims at promoting an in-depth, thoughtful discussion on a wide range of issues concerning strengthening the positions of the Russian language as a language of international communication, introducing new, progressive teaching methods and promoting Russian literature values.
The Russian language is our unique heritage. We are proud of it and we must protect it. It was the language that, together with spiritual traditions, brought the peoples of Russia together to make a single nation, connecting generations and ensuring mutual enrichment of ethnic cultures for centuries.
Today, Russian language proficiency offers people great opportunities for personal growth and fulfilment, as well as career development. That is why it is so important to continue improving the quality of school and university education, so that Russian language classes could always be informative, interesting and truly inspiring and so that the Russian language could develop and be in sync with the times while maintaining its great traditions.
Of course, it is also necessary to carry out complex, highly needed work aimed at promoting all other languages of our multicultural country’s peoples.”