WIPO Deputy Director General Visits Russian Federation, Meets Senior Officials

December 20, 2019

WIPO Deputy Director General Ms. Sylvie Forbin concluded a three-day official visit to the Russian Federation.

During the visit, Ms. Forbin took part in a roundtable meeting on implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled in the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

Participants included:

• Oleg Smolin, First Deputy Chairperson, State Duma Committee on Education and Science;
• Svetlana Zhurova, First Deputy Chairperson, State Duma Committee on International Affairs;
• Natalia Romashova, Director, Legal Department, Ministry for Culture of the Russian Federation;
• Elena Zakharova, Director, Russian State Library for the Blind.

The roundtable was concluded with the presentation of thank you letters to representatives of the WIPO Office in the Russian Federation (WRO) for the support provided and significant personal contribution to the organization of this meeting on the implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty within the legislation of the Russian Federation.

Within the framework of the visit, meetings were also held in the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and in the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor), which involved discussion of a wide range of issues related to bilateral cooperation.

The main topics of the meetings were:

• implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty within the national legislation of the Russian Federation; and,
• internet piracy.

Ms. Forbin also visited the All-Russian State University of Cinematography named after S. A. Gerasimov (VGIK) and the Tretyakov Gallery.