Briefing at the Tatarstan Government House informs about the work of BRICS Summit in Kazan

On 26 October at a briefing in the Government House of the republic journalists were told about how the BRICS Summit in Kazan will influence the world interest to the republic, how its work was protected from internet-attacks, whom the Rais of Tatarstan had meetings with and why chak-chak attracted attention of the whole world.

Speaking at the briefing, the Deputy Chief of the Office of the Rais of the republic Igor Saveleyev said: ”The BRICS Summit in Kazan has stirred interest to Tatarstan. The Rais of the republic Rustam Minnikhanov took part in a big number of meetings which discussed the development of trade-economic and cultural cooperation. That is why we can say that the global stature of the republic has increased.”

He also told that Rustam Minnikhanov talked to all leaders of countries in the airport and during bilateral meetings, including those with the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedow and others.

Igor Savelyev emphasized that it is important that 16 countries, which took part in the Summit, are from the Islamic World and Rustam Minnikhanov is responsible for interaction of Russia with them.

Having told about 29 delegations visiting the exhibition “Made in Tatarstan” organized for guests of the summit, Igor Savelyev mentioned that one of the main heroes was chak-chak (traditional Tatar sweet treat). “Everybody spoke about it. It has become an element of soft power,” he said.

Tatarstan Deputy Prime Minister Shamil Gafarov informed that there were more than 60 thousand publications about the Summit all over the world with the potential coverage of 8.2bn people, “We can say that the whole population of the world has learned about Tatarstan and Kazan”, he said.

However, there were also unprecedented DDos-attacks on sites related to the event, such as the site of the Tatarstan Government, banks and other structures, but the information system withstood, Shamil Gafarov said.