Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad-Mehdi Esmaili arrived in Moscow on Monday at the head of a delegation.

Upon arrival at Vnukovo International Airport, the Iranian minister and his entourage were welcomed by the Deputy Minister of Culture the Russian Federation, Andrei Vladimirovich Malyshev and Iran’s ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali.

The Iranian minister is accompanied by two of his deputies, the vice-chairman of the Cultural Commission at the Islamic Parliament and the secretary of the Supreme Council of  Islamic Culture & relations Organization of Iran.

Iran’s Culture Week in Russia will begin on Tuesday, July 4th, with the participation of Esmaili and the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Olga Lyubimova with the opening of an exhibition of Iranian art at the VDNKh exhibition complex in Moscow, and with a joint performance of traditional Iranian music by Iranian national orchestra and the national youth orchestra of Russia.

The Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance is also slated to hold an official meeting with his Russian counterpart on Tuesday and will attend a joint press conference with her.

A meeting with the cultural advisor of the President of the Russian Federation, prominent Iranologists and Islamic scholars in Russia, a meeting with the president of the Russian State University for the Humanities and delivering a speech at that university, as well as a speech at the cultural and media council of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran are among other programs of the Iranian minister while he is Moscow on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In addition to Moscow, the city of St. Petersburg also hosts Iran’s Culture Week in Russia, for which the Iranian minister will be present there.

On Thursday, while meeting with the governor of St. Petersburg, Esmaili will visit the precious treasure of Iranian manuscripts and works of art registered in UNESCO at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences,, as well as the Iran section of the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. 

Participation in the traditional Iranian music concert at the St. Petersburg Capella Hall will be the end of the official travel plans of the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance during his trip to Russia.

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