Congress of alumni of Russian universities opens in Kazan.

KAZAN, June 30 (Itar-Tass) -- Alumni of Russian higher educational
establishments who work abroad will gather on Thursday for their second
congress in the capital city of Russia's republic of Tatarstan.
"The forum was initiated by the Russian Ministry of Education and
Science with the support of the Foreign Ministry, Federal Migration
Service, and Rusnano Co," a spokeswoman for the ministry of education and
science, Lyudmila Fesunenko, told Itar-Tass. The congress will be attended
by Minister of Education and Science Andrei Fursenko, President of
Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, Vice President of the Russian Academy of
Sciences and Nobel Prize winner Zhores Alferov. Among participants are
about 200 researchers, political scientists, people of arts from Russia,
the United States, Great Britain, the Netherlands, the Czech republic, and
other countries.
According to the organizers, the congress is aimed to work out
specific mechanisms to attract Russian-speaking scientists residing abroad
to cooperation with their Russian colleagues. The congress is expected to
promote contacts with Russian scientists who live and work abroad.