CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly to open in Kazan

KAZAN, June 17 (Itar-Tass) -- Tatarstan's capital will host a meeting
of the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on culture, information, tourism
and sports.
The event will feature participants from Azerbaijan, Armenia,
Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Ukraine.
"Parliamentarians will discuss a project of unified information code
for members of the Commonwealth of Independent States," Chairman of
Tatarstan's State Council Farid Mukhametshin said. "The agenda includes
bills on sports training, on techno parks, on cultural heritage objects,
and issues of harmonisation and unifying of the CIS countries'
legislations."
Guests of the assembly will have a tour of Tatarstan's capital, which
is over a thousand years old and will visit Kazan's Kremlin, a UNESCO
monument.
On Saturday, June 18, they will participate in the national holiday,
the Sabantui.
Sabantui - "celebration of the plough" - is one of the unique,
colourful and especially popular Tatar festivals. It takes place after the
first haymaking. Sabantui brings together many traditional games and
competitions, which have developed over centuries. Everyone can take part
in racing with the yoke carrying pails full of water, sack races, smashing
pots while blind-folded, and in many more games, as well as in popular
Tatar wrestling and, of course, in horserace where skill of dzhigits
(trick riders) is rewarded with special gifts.