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The Birmingham News (Birmingham, AL)
Posted on September 20, 2007

By   VICTORIA L. COMAN

A service-oriented local government and a free press have been eye-opening experiences for a 10-person Russian delegation visiting the Birmingham-Hoover metropolitan area this week.

The group's visit, sponsored by the Open World Leadership Center, is designed to give the small group of civic professionals a close look at American culture with an emphasis on accountable governance. Members of the group are expecting to get ideas on how to help their fledgling governments improve their operations.

The Open World Leadership Center was established by Congress in 1999 to help residents of former Soviet Union states learn about democracy and free enterprise. It also was designed to help them promote partnerships between citizens of those countries and the United States.

The visitors are staying in the homes of local members of Friendship Force International through Sunday. Friendship Force, nonprofit international cultural exchange organization, is serving as the local host organization for Open World.

The delegates' visit has included meetings with government officials in Hoover and Helena, with the League of Women Voters and with some Birmingham News staffers. Their visit also will include visits to the Alabama Department of Revenue, the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham, Auburn University's Urban Studio/Center of Architecture and Urban Studies and area churches.

Pavel Kulakov, a 26-year-old public relations representative from Tutayev Village, said his impression of the cities visited so far was of "clean and cozy" communities.

"We've learned so many positive things here," Kulakov said, speaking through Natalya Parkhomenko, one of group's two facilitators. "For example, we learned about how municipal services here are financed really well and how they are supported by the government."

Kulakov said services in his town such as street cleaning often are done by volunteers.

He said he was most impressed with the way America has a free press.

"Your newspapers are very different from ours," Kulakov said. "If we don't like the newspapers in Russia, (the government) just closes them. Or, they just say to the employees, `You have to find another job.'"

The delegates' staying with host families is another useful learning opportunity for them, said Lilya Vidanova, one of the group's facilitators.

"The idea is not just to learn in the meetings, but also to learn about American culture by staying with American families," she said.

[Reprinted with Permission]

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