International cooperation: President of Russia Vladimir Putin has thanked Director of the Library of Congress

Ambassador of the Russian Federation in the USA Sergei Kislyak conveyed gratitude from the President of Russia Vladimir Putin to the Director of the Library of Congress James Billington for the great contribution to the development of the Russian-American cultural and humanitarian cooperation.

The Ambassador’s residence in Washington hosted a state reception, organized by S. Kislyak in honor of the J. Billington, celebrating this year the 25 anniversary of his stay as a head of the Library of Congress.

Sergei Kislyak reminded on the participation of J. Billington in many important Russian-American projects, including the opening of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library, the implementation of the program of professional exchange center “Open World” at the Library of Congress and initiatives to expand cultural ties between students of Russian and the USA.

James Hadley Billington is a Slavic scholar, a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Honorary Doctor of the Moscow State University. In 1950-1970s he taught history in Harvard and Princeton, from 1973-1987 he headed the George Wilson International Center. While on this position he founded the George Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies. In 1987 Billington became the 13th Director of the Library of Congress. In 1999 he became one of the initiators of the of the Russian-American program “Open World”. Also J. Billington is one of the ideologists of the creation of the World Digital Library.