DHAKA, Oct 20, 2019 (BSS) – Describing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as a brave woman with unusual statesmanship quality, visiting Russian scholar Professor Vitaliy Naumkin today said the Bangladesh premier is one of those leaders who are changing the world.
“Your Prime Minister (Hasina) is a brave woman with tragic history of her family …. daughter of founder of your country … it’s very unusual case (in global context) … she is so successful,” he said at a press conference in the capital.
Professor Naumkin, director of Oriental Studies at 300-year old Russian Academic of Science (RAS), made the remarks while describing why the RAS recently published a book on Sheikh Hasina in four languages – Russian, Bangla, English and Arabic. The book was written over a conversation between Prof Naumkin and Prime Minister Hasina.
The Russian scholar said the RAS has published the book under one of its projects to highlight important global leaders. “Our idea was to highlight those leaders who are changing the world,” he added.
Besides, Professor Naumkin also translated the “Unfinished Memoirs of Bangabandhu” into Russian language while the RAS published another book on Bangabandhu titled “Mujibur Rahman and the birth of Bangladesh”, written by Felix Yurlov describing international situation and the events in Bangladesh on the eve of the declaration of its independence in 1971.
Professor Naumkin handed over copies of these three books to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Prime Minister Office (PMO) this morning along with Russian Ambassador in Dhaka Alexander Ignatov.
At the briefing, Prof Naumkin said the background of publishing these books is very specific as Bangladesh is currently one of the main global players, especially in South Asia.
“We thought it’s important to let Russian leaders and people know more about this country and our common heritage between Russia and Bangladesh”, he clarified.
In the book on his conversation with Sheikh Hasina, Naumkin said Hasina told the role of her father, the main feature of the modern Bangladesh, the main challenges of the government in the short and long term and the pro-active policies of Bangladesh in various regional and international platforms.
The Prime Minister expressed her views on the issues of territorial disputes between states, ethnic and confessional conflicts, and her government’s desire to resolve outstanding issues with neighbours in a peaceful and amicable manner.
The conversation focused on energy and energy cooperation between the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and Russia, as well as India, and assessed the major challenges to the modern world such as international terrorism and climate change, as well as uncontrolled migration.
About the Unfinished Memories, Prof Naumkin said, “These are Sheikh Mujib’s own words, the language has only been changed for absolute clarity when required.”
Bangladesh-Russia Friendship Society General Secretary Prof Dr M Shahidullah Sikdar and RMM Power and Energy’s Managing Director Aniruddha Kumar Roy also spoke at the briefing.