"Indian cinema is very popular in Moscow and we love the imaginative dance choreographies in Indian movies. It is natural that the audience here will appreciate ballet," said Irina Kazaryan, head of the international department of the Grand Moscow Classical Ballet.

WASHINGTON -- From events of the past three weeks a number of lessons can be drawn, some old and some new:

First, the phrase "the Arab street" has been redefined by Tahrir Square. We don’t need acute listening agents or polling to see what the Arab world wants.

Two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union ended the days when Cold War allies could count on its largesse, Moscow has embarked on a soft-power campaign of aid to increase its clout and burnish its international image.

According to a poll, three fourths of Georgians are calling for a fence-mending with Russia and want a more peaceful North Caucasus, a prominent Georgian political scientist told a Tbilisi round table on Thursday.

The English outcry at FIFA's decision to award the World Cup to Russia and Qatar has obscured what might be a brilliant gesture of goodwill.

Many observers of the Korean Peninsula have traced the apparent relaxation of tensions there to the supporting contributions made by China and the United States, with attention now focusing on the upcoming inter-Korean dialogue. But Russia's role in this process also deserves mention, since Moscow can be a positive force regarding the Koreas.

In early March, celebrations dedicated to the Russian Maslenitsa Festival, or the Pancake Week, will be held in the city of Rome as part of the Russia-Italy cross-cultural exchange year. The traditional farewell-to-winter carnival will take place under the auspices of the governments of St. Petersburg and Rome.

Evgeny Morozov, a noted specialist on the use of new communications technologies to promote democratic values, has a new book titled "The Net Delusion: The Dark Side Of Internet Freedom." In it, he argues that hype about "Twitter revolutions" and the enormous potential of the Internet to promote open societies and roll back authoritarianism is naive and overblown.