MOSCOW. Aug 23 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has denied the service's involvement in the organization of a conference to be held in Ukraine in September.
"In connection with a statement by Ukrainian presidential secretariat deputy head Andriy Kyslynsky reported by Interfax, in which he alleged that the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service is involved in arranging a conference entitled 'Ukraine-Russia: Problematic Relations in a Common History' to take place in Kyiv on September 4-6, the press office has been authorized to state that the organization of international scientific conferences dealing with history is not among the SVR's duties," SVR press secretary Sergei Ivanov told Interfax on Saturday.
The Ukrainian presidential press service circulated Kyslynsky's statement on Thursday, in which he said that a conference entitled 'Ukraine-Russia: Problematic Relations in a Common History' organized by the Humanitarian Ukrainian-Russian Council and the newspapers 2000 and Izvestia would take place in Kyiv on September 4-6. According to Kyslynsky, the event would be funded from the Russian government program for assistance to compatriots abroad. "It is no secret that this program is directly linked with the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service," Kyslynsky said. He described the upcoming conference as "a peculiar show of anti-Ukrainian figures and positions."