On October 29, the birth day of Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov, the WTC Moscow hosted readings in memory of the outstanding politician, academic and journalist, organized by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, the Institute of World Economy and International Relations named after Ye.M. Primakov and World Trade Center Moscow. 

The keynote speakers at the first readings were, among others, Andrei Fursenko, an aide to the Russian president, Sergei Lavrov, the Foreign Minister of Russia, Anatoly Torkunov, Rector of MGIMO, Grigory Rapota, Secretary of State of the Union State. 

There is a plan to make the “Primakov Readings” an annual event. This is how their organizers — Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation and the Institute of World Economy and International Relations named after Ye.M. Primakov — intend to pursue the traditions established by Mr. Primakov. The aim is to discuss the country’s most pressing issues with professionals, to find ways of their resolution, to inform the authorities honestly about it.

“I sincerely support your idea of holding readings in memory of Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov, and I am convinced they will have their traditions, will become a remarkable event in the country’s social, academic, cultural life,” Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said in an address read by Artur Muraviyov, the head of the state’s authorized representative in the Federation Council. “Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov was an outstanding statesman, a talented academic, politician, diplomat. His professionalism, experience in management, broadest perspective had been invariably in demand in the most difficult and demanding areas of work,” the president wrote.