Dear Provost,

Dear Ladies and Gentleman,

Dear Friends,

It is a great pleasure to be here with you today at the City Chambers to celebrate the 30^th Anniversary of twinning between Glasgow and Rostov-on-Don.

Both Rostov-on-Don and Glasgow have quite a lot in common. Both are trade and industrial cities with long and proud traditions. Both are river-cities: the River Don and the River Clyde played a key role in the evolution of these two cities, determined their destiny and witnessed the most crucial moments of the history.

Prominent Russian writer Mikhail Sholokhov won a Nobel Prize for the epic novel «And quiet flows the Don» which depicts the lives of ordinary people during the most dramatic episodes of our history – the First World War, the Revolution, and the Civil War.

Dramatic pages could be found in the history of Glasgow as well. It was from the River Clyde that many of the Arctic Convoys sailed off to brave dark and stormy waters of Arctic in order to bring essential supplies to the Soviet Union during the WWII. This year we will celebrate another Jubilee - the 75^th Anniversary of the first Arctic Convoy Dervish which opened an indispensable chapter of our shared past.

 And the memory of this proud chapter, when our countries stood shoulder to shoulder, lives on. This year a memorial plaque to Baroness Spenser-Churchill was unveiled in Rostov-on-Don paying tribute to her dedication and commitment to help my country and my people during the war.

It makes easy to argue that cooperation between our cities is a brilliant example of the truthful and successful twinning. It is as efficient and prolific now as it was during all these years. Moreover we see that year after year joint activities expand, various projects are being implemented, and there are more to come in future - visit of puppeteer Mr.Stephen Foster who brilliantly performed for the children of Rostov – are vivid cases of this kind.

Indeed 30 years of people-to-people friendly ties is a great achievement. We consider it our priority to support this partnership, and we are grateful to enthusiastic people who help promote links between two ancient and rich cultures.

I thank our kind hosts and wish everyone to spend a wonderful time.

Thank you!