On June 11-12 Consul General Otto Hans Van Maerssen visited the Udmurt Republic. In Udmurtia he met with representatives of the Udmurt Republic’s government and the Izhevsk Municipal Administration, and discussed educational and exchange programs with the leadership of Udmurt State University. The Consul General also visited regional museums, including Kalashnikovs’ Museum, the Tchaikovsky Estate-Museum, the National Museum of Udmurtia and the Architectural and Ethnographic Complex Ludorvai. These visits assisted our understanding of the Udmurt Republic’s culture and helped define possible future bilateral cultural diplomacy projects. One current U.S. Consulate cultural project in the republic was the visit of a Native American Artist Nani Chacon to Izhevsk and her work on an outdoor mural painting, which the Consul General opened on June 12. The mural named “Migration” has now become a wonderful gift to Izhevsk on the city’s 255th anniversary.
