Russian Confucius Institute denies agent allegations
- By Guo Yiming
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E-mail China.org.cn, July 30, 2015
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| A teacher gives a lesson about the Chinese tea culture at the Confucius Institute of Blagoveshchensk State Pedagogical University in Russia. [File photo] |
![A teacher gives a lesson about the Chinese tea culture at the Confucius Institute of Blagoveshchensk State Pedagogical University in Russia. [File photo]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20150730/001ec949ff5c17241f794d.jpg "A teacher gives a lesson about the Chinese tea culture at the Confucius Institute of Blagoveshchensk State Pedagogical University in Russia. [File photo]")
Russia's Blagoveshchensk State Pedagogical University (BSPU) has denied an allegation by the city's procuratorate that its Confucius Institute, an educational program established jointly with China, is playing the role of an agent and not registered correctly.
According to a statement issued by the local procuratorate in Blagoveshchensk on July 28, the institute allegedly breached laws concerning foreign cultural centers and non-governmental organizations (NGO) based in Russia, and it needs to suspend all of its teaching activities until the court makes a decision.
Nikolai Kukharenko, the institute's director and also head of the International Education and Cooperation Department in the university, blasted the accusation as groundless, saying that the institute is neither an NGO nor a cultural center, stressing that it is a joint project with a college in the neighboring northern Chinese city of Heihe.
"Confucius Institutes are built to strengthen the Chinese cultural influence across the globe and many universities abroad are willing to get involved in the program due to the growing enthusiasm of learning Mandarin among students," said Alexandr Gabuev, an expert with Carnegie Moscow Center, a think tank.
Russia's Ministry of Education and Science recently announced that Chinese will be tested as a foreign language on Russia's college entrance exam starting from 2016, in addition to English, French, Spanish and German.
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