MOSCOW (TASS) — CIS can return by the second half of this year to full-fledged cooperation in a full-time format in the cultural, scientific and humanitarian fields.

“This year, hopefully before the summer, we will complete the online mode and move on to real events. I think the first event of this scale will be the forum of the scientific and creative intelligentsia of the Commonwealth countries. We had planned to hold it in Uzbekistan, and I think it will be held there”, Mikhail Shvydkoy, special representative of the President of the Russian Federation for international cultural cooperation, co-chairman of the Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation of the CIS countries, told reporters Thursday.

According to him, there are more than a hundred events scheduled in this year, which had to be postponed from last year to 2021. ‘A number of events are to take place in Kazakhstan, Armenia and Azerbaijan. I think the second half of the year will be very busy because everyone missed a lot”, said the Russian President’s special envoy.

In particular, said Shvydkoi, Stars of the Commonwealth Foundation awards will be given. “We are planning a translators’ forum and a Khatchaturian competition in Armenia. We will organise events to select the cultural capital of the Commonwealth”, he said.

Shvydkoi also expressed the hope that a meeting within the framework of the Minsk Initiative, bringing together representatives of the intelligentsia from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, will be held in Minsk this year.