Baltic Dialogue

St. Petersburg, Russia - UPF representatives reported on the Baltic Dialogue Project at the third theoretical and practical conference on the theme of “The Baltic Region Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” in St. Petersburg March 23–24.

St. Petersburg, Russia - People from Russia, Estonia, and Latvia assembled in the beautiful hall of the House of Writers near St. Petersburg for a Religious Youth Service project January 24-27 helping clean the building and visiting religious sites in the area. 

Young Russian musicians and artists traveled to Finland and Sweden for the third annual “Light of the Christmas Star” International Festival and Contest December 9 to 14.

St. Petersburg, Russia - The July 11 meeting of the St. Petersburg Peace Council was attended by its most active members, among them Secretary General of UPF-Russia, Konstantin Krylov; chair of the Peace Council, Tatyana Krasnosumova; and volunteers Denis Pigasov and Tatyana Nadzinskaya. They discussed important issues including further developments of Baltic Dialogue Project and assistance for the Novosibirsk chapter of the Universal Peace Federation in creating a Peace Park in Novosibirsk near the House of National Cultures.

Parnu, Estonia - On the Baltic seacoast in Parnu, Estonia, the annual Parnu Summer Cup youth football tournament took place from June 30 to July 3 under the slogan of "Play Football Make Peace." During the period of several days, more than 100 football players from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, Ukraine, and Russia competed with the desire to become the best of the best.

Tallinn, Estonia - A meeting of Ambassadors for Peace was held in Tallinn on July 2. The program was about the dialogue between Russia and Baltic States. The guests representing NGOs, businesses, and governmental organizations, discussed the basics of the dialogue within the post-Soviet territories.

Riga, Latvia and Vilnius, Lithuania - Building on cultural exchanges between Russian, Finnish, and Swedish children, UPF-Eurasia introduced its Baltic Dialogue Initiative inviting Ambassadors for Peace to join in addressing sensitive issues between Russia and its neighbors to the west. Read reports from Riga, Vilnius, and Tallinn.

Riga, Latvia - The Universal Peace Federation-Latvia, convened the first official conference on “The Baltic Dialogue” on June 28. Among the participants were Ambassadors for Peace of Latvia, school teachers, university professors, and leaders of youth grassroots organizations.  Altogether, there were about 30 guests.

Vilnius, Lithuania - A meeting on the UPF Founders’ World Tour 2011 and the Baltic Dialogue initiative of UPF-Eurasia for Ambassadors for Peace was held on June 21 in Vilnius.

The Eurasian Peace Council calls for cooperation and interaction among all who desire peace, mutual understanding, and cooperation in the region and recommends joint peacemaking efforts of governments, religious organizations, NGOs, and the private sector.

UPF-Eurasia's Baltic Dialogue Initiative seeks to establish a new channel of dialogue between the populace of the Baltic nations and Russia, on the basis of shared European values, for the sake of growth and development, by means of popular diplomacy, mutual understanding, interfaith cooperation, humanitarian aid, and service projects, for the purpose of promoting better relations between the Russian-speaking and the native populations of the Baltic states and also to support the process of integrating the peoples of Russia and the Baltics into the European zone.

The second International “Light of the Christmas Star” Festival and Competition took place December 11-15 in Finland and Sweden. More than 700 participants came together from many cities and regions of Russia and had a unique opportunity to perform on the best stages of Helsinki and Stockholm.

Moscow, Russia - UPF-Eurasia's Baltic Dialogue project includes plans for sports and cultural programs to build neighborly relations among the youth of northwest Russia and the neighboring nations of Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, and Sweden.

Moscow, Russia - “The Role of Non-governmental and Public Organizations and People of Good Will in the Baltic Dialogue” was the theme of the March 2010 meeting of the Peace Council in the northwest region of Russia. Konstantin Krylov, Deputy Secretary General of UPF-Eurasia, spoke before the audience on “Conflicts and ways to solve them."

I want to present some of our key activities and strategies in the Eurasia region. This includes all the countries of the former Soviet Union, plus Mongolia and China. Eurasia has many remaining conflicts. Countries that became independent have had to learn to live together. UPF has been developing many peace initiatives. The work we have been doing in our regional over the past 10 to 15 years could not have been accomplished without the support of Ambassadors for Peace.