Italy to be special guest of 24th Moscow Book Fair.

MOSCOW, September 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Italy will be the guest of honour
of the 24th Moscow International Book Fair, due on September 7-12.
Many seminars, round tables, and conferences will focus on Italian
culture, Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass
Communications Vladimir Grigoriev told a news conference in Moscow.
"This year's fair will bring together some 50 countries, in the
framework of the cross-year of Russia-Italy that country will send the
largest delegation of writers, editors, cultural figures," - he said.
Italy's 45 publishers, 17 writers will participate in the fair, Press
Attache of Italy's Embassy in Russia Enrico Valvo said.
According to him, the Italian language and culture are very popular in
Russia. As a proof that he quoted statistics - works of Italian 366
authors were translated into Russian from 2000 to 2010.
"Our goal is to promote exchanges of copyrights between Italian and
Russian publishing houses; we shall prepare special space where meetings
will be organised," - he said.
Italy's participation in the fair coincides with the 150th anniversary
of the reunification of the country, so some activities will be associated
not only with cultural themes but with history, too, he said.
Valvo stressed during the cross-year of Russia and Italy, the
participation of the Italian side in the exhibition will be a major event
in a series of one hundred events where Italians represent their country
in Russia.
At the 24th Moscow International Book Fair will feature over 200,000
new publications in dozens of languages, and the program includes over 500
events.
The fair was organised for the first time in 1977. Until 1995 it was
held every other year, and later on it became an annual event.