Further news of the RC Kazan's bicycle tour of the UK
A party of five Rotarians and family members will arrive in Edinburgh on 26th June, assuming their visa applications are approved. For the next two days they will be in that city and hoping to meet with representatives of a local Rotary club.

On July 3-4 they are planning to be in Liverpool and there too they would like to meet with fellow Rotarians at one of the local clubs. Finally, on July 10-11 (or later depending on their progress), they are planning to arrive in Bournemouth. This is the current timetable, but naturally there may be changes due to unforeseen circumstances.

They hope to encourage Rotarians from RIBI to get involved with service projects in Russia. Rotary clubs in the following cities are looking for links with clubs in the U.K. : Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod.

Russian Cyclists to tour UK
Gian Paolo Marello, Chair of the International Committee, D 2220 writes as follows:
"There is an interesting proposal from our RC of Kazan: to organize a Rotarians’ bike tour along the United Kingdom, so as to pay visit, during tour, to different Rotary Clubs located on its itinerary, so as to enjoy Rotarians’ fellowship and to get acquainted with RIBI, and also to propose to British Clubs to be visited a Rotary volunteering project aimed at getting acquainted with the painful reality of orphanages in Russia. To my understanding, it might be a wonderful occasion for re-starting joint activity of our Clubs in the framework of the UK-Russia ICC" [Details and map of route (PDF file 542KB)]

New Rotary District in Russia, D2220
An historic day for Rotarians has been celebrated on June 17 - RI District 2220, the first Russian Rotary District has been chartered. It includes all Clubs of Western Russia and Urals, the territory where almost 90% of Russians live. The Chain symbolizing the rank of Governor has been personally placed on DGE Andrey Danilenko by the President 2005-2006 of Rotary International, Carl Wilhelm Stenhammar. [Full story]

New Rotary Club chartered in St Petersburg
The picture (click for large 200KB picture) shows the chartering of the 5th Rotary club in St Petersburg - the St Petersburg International Rotary Club - which was celebrated in February. The pictures of the event were accompanied by the following update from Mark & Irina of that club -

"Let me also tell you few words about last Rotary meeting, when we had again many guests from USA, UK, Sweden and Korea.

Speaker was Kjell Gerdin, who is head of St. Petersburg Child Protection Society. He made great speach about children's problems at St. Petersburg and our Club is going to support this potential our project, which we are going to start soonestly together with Swedish Rotarians. Furthermore, by immediate reaction of our Club member Alexander Polischuk it was decided start it soonestly ourselves and collect some funds by Charity Concert at Small Philarmony Hall at Nevsky av. (450 places)".

UK/Russian Project
Read the history of an ongoing Rotary project which was started by the Rotary Club of Colchester in 1990 with the then provisional Rotary Club of St. Petersburg, Neva. It shows what can be achieved by cooperation between British and Russian Clubs.[Full story]

This ICC is sponsored by District 1240 and is part of the worldwide group of Rotary Comites Inter Pays (ROTACIP) that provide support for projects, exchanges and links between pairs of countries around the world. It supports the United Kingdom - Russia ICC with information, links and a mailing list. If you are interested in projects or exchanges with Russia, this is the place to start.