Olivier Talles from French Catholic newspaper La Croix came to KFU on June 22nd.

He is now on a mission to prepare a series of essays about minorities, local communities, and religions in Russia. The goal is to show the French public all the diversity that one can find here, how local communities are involved in social life and manage to preserve their cultural identities. He met with Associate Professor Zufar Galeev who was glad to answer the guest’s questions.

Olivier Talles told us that he wants to understand how different ethnicities and cultures coexist in Russia. So Kazan is, obviously, a city that allows to study what it is to be a Tatar person today. The journalist plans to speak with academics, clerics, politicians. This will take four – five days of his schedule.

He already visited Ulan-Ude and intends to move to Moscow and Saint-Petersburg after wrapping things up in our city.

Mr. Talles wants to cover major traditional religions, such as Islam, Judaism, and Old Belief.