About UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN). UNESCO was founded on November 16, 1945. Today, the organization consists of 193 member states and 11 associate members. UNESCO headquarters is in Paris. Audrey Azoulay (France) is the Director-General of UNESCO. Aleksandr Kuznetsov is an Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary as well as a Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to UNESCO in Paris.

Russia has been a UNESCO member since 1954.

The national coordination body ensuring the cooperation of the Government of the Russian Federation, federal executive bodies, regional bodies and organizations, as well as scientists, specialists, and experts of our country with UNESCO is the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. The Chairman of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO is Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. The position of the Executive Secretary of the Commission is filled by Grigory Ordzhonikidze, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The regional office of the Russian Commission for UNESCO in the Republic of Bashkortostan is the Committee of the Republic of Bashkortostan for UNESCO, established on November 25, 1998 by the decree of the President of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The Chairman of the Committee is the Deputy Head of the Administration of the Head of the Republic of Bashkortostan Ural Kilsenbayev; the Executive Director of the Committee is Ulfat Yumaguzin.