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White stork logo for Year of Russia

MOSCOW: The organising committee of the Year of Russia in India has approved its logo — a white stork pictured with the colours of the flags of the two countries in the background. It will appear in all the events throughout 2008 and into 2009.

The stork won an open contest in which over 100 Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian artists competed with 300 sketches . The jury included experts from the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Oriental Studies, the Indian Embassy in Moscow and The Times of India.

Twelve works were on the short-list. Nikolai Kiselev, 24, an artist from Novosibirsk, won. His sketch was also named the best by Kanwal Sibal, then Indian Ambassador to Russia, at the April 17 gala on the 60th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations.

“Storks spend the winter in India to fly to Russia for the warm season. These birds of passage build air-bridges between the two countries,” said Anzhelika Zhukova, chief executive officer of IMA Dialogue and contest organiser.

On the presence of the Russian tricolour in the sketch, the organisers say it is important for people in India to get to know the flag. Ms. Zhukova said: “They often mistake it for the French or the Dutch flag, according to a recent opinion poll conducted in Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi. Indians remember the red Soviet flag far better. They know Moscow. President Vladimir Putin is a household name. As for Alexander Pushkin, Russia’s greatest poet, only 2 per cent of respondents mentioned him.”

The jury thinks the stork will also make a good emblem for the reciprocal Year of India in Russia, scheduled for 2009. “The bird flies right to left in the Year of Russia emblem. It needs only to reverse direction a year later,” Ms. Zhukova said.

The committee gathered the managers of Russia’s principal government and private companies, who discussed the programme of the Year of Russia as an event of major political importance.

The Year of Russia in India will include 150 events. The major events of 2008 will be an Indian-Russian forum on trade and investment in New Delhi, a New Delhi World Book Fair, at which Russia will be the guest of honour, the launch of a Russian-Indian YouthSat research satellite, youth friendship festivals, and guest tours of Russian music and song and dance companies.

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