WIFE OF THE RUSSIAN PRESIDENT LYUDMILA PUTINA OPENS RUSSIAN BOOK CENTER IN YEREVAN

ITAR-TASS
April 7 2008
Russia

YEREVAN, April 7 (Itar-Tass) — Wife of the Russian president Lyudmila
Putina has opened a Russian Book Center in Yerevan. She arrived in
Armenia at the invitation of the Armenian president’s wife Bella
Kocharyan.

The Book Center is located at the Armenian Society for cultural
contacts and cooperation with foreign countries. This is one of the
most beautiful mansions in the center of Yerevan built in 1896 to a
design by architect Boris Megrabov. In the 1940s the building housed
the Armenian Foreign Ministry, in 1949 the building was turned over
to the Armenian Society for culture and cooperation with foreign
countries.

The idea to establish the Book Center was first suggested three
years ago when Putina and Kocharyan visited the Armenian Center in
the framework of opening the Year of Russia in Armenia.

The new Russian Book Center is expected to be a popular treasury
of Russian culture in Armenia and promote the development of
Russo-Armenian cooperation in the humanitarian field.