AKIPRESS.COM - Humanitarian contacts, cultural, scientific and educational exchanges are of particular importance for Kyrgyz-Russia cooperation, said Russian President Vladimir Putin in a joint press conference with his Kyrgyz counterpart Almazbek Atambayev in Bishkek on February 28.

In 2016, Kyrgyzstan successfully hosted the Russian Culture Days and the Russian Film Week. Kyrgyzstan’s representatives have expressed readiness to reciprocate with the Kyrgyz Culture Days in Russia this year, said Putin.

Russian universities are training more than 16,000 Kyrgyzstani students, including 5,000 whose tuition is sponsored by the Russian Government. This year, we admitted more than 420 Kyrgyzstani students at no charge.

"Kyrgyzstan, in turn, pays a lot of attention to the study of the Russian language, for which we have to thank the President of Kyrgyzstan, and all our Kyrgyzstani partners and friends. The number of schools with tuition in Russian is growing; 200 of them offer tuition in Russian only, and 414, in the Russian and Kyrgyz languages. In September 2016, a new school opened in Bishkek, named after Anton Chekhov, with the support of the Russian Peace Foundation and of course, our Kyrgyzstani friends, first of all, the President of Kyrgyzstan," said Putin.