15/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - The Council of Europe and the European Commission, in cooperation with the Regional Planning Ministry of the Russian Federation will launch their joint programme on minorities in Russia, and the promotion of languages, cultures, media and civil society in Moscow on Monday 22 June. This joint programme, which will run until the end of 2011, seeks to promote Russia's ethnic and national minorities and better take account of their specificities in the cultural, education, linguistic, media and civil society areas. The programme will develop a global approach to minority and minority language policy, with recommendations and advice to the Russian authorities from experts, with a view to implementing Council of Europe standards and facilitating the European regional and minority languages charter by the Russian Federation. For further information, contact estelle.steiner@coe.int or tabya.baeva@ec.europa.eu or aleksay.chernyshev@minregion.ru (O.J./transl.rt)