Grodno, Russia's Krasnodar to establish sister city relationship

“We wanted to find a partner in Belarus that does not have a sister city in Kuban. The choice fell on Grodno. We were attracted by the city's infrastructure and location. We came to the forum to establish contacts with the city of Grodno, and I think we succeeded. We had previously discussed cooperation prospects,” said Alesya Chalaya, deputy head of the foreign relations department of the Krasnodar administration.

“The idea to establish a sister city relationship with Krasnodar was strongly upheld by the municipal administration and the council of deputies. We have signed a total of 10 agreements on sister city relationships and cooperation agreements with Russia. Until now, we have cooperated mostly with the northern part of Russia,” said Chairman of the Grodno City Council of Deputies Boris Fyodorov. “Grodno and Krasnodar have a similar scale and role in their respective regions. I think we will be able to build good partnerships because we seek to tap into all areas of activity. In addition to that, economic benefits of such interaction are obvious. We are agricultural regions with developed processing industries,” he noted.

The parties plan to sign the first documents already this year. “Let's start with a memorandum of intent. This will be the first stage that will bring us closer to each other, and then we will move on to a sister city agreement,” the partners added.

On 29 September Brest is hosting a plenary meeting of the 12th Forum of Sister Cities of Belarus and Russia. Five new cooperation agreements were signed at the meeting, including agreements between Mogilev and Yaroslavl, Orsha and Smolensk, Luninets and Novoye Devyatkino, the largest rural settlement in Leningrad Oblast. Zaslavl has two sister cities at once - Yalta and the city of Kotelniki in Moscow Oblast.