In an extraordinary act of culture and courage, a Russian orchestra performed in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra recently liberated from the Islamic State, but Western media mocked the event, notes Gilbert Doctorow.[...] The orchestrated performed a concert of Bach, Shchedrin and Prokofiev in the Roman Amphitheater to celebrate the return of culture to a UNESCO site desecrated by its Islamic State occupiers.

Lehrer Dance, based in Buffalo, is known for its strong, inspiring, choreography. Internationally known. The eight-person troupe is just back from a European tour, and they’ll spend the next two weeks in Russia. [...] This is the fourth time Lehrer has led his dancers on a Russian cultural diplomacy trip.  The tradition started in 2012, when the United States Consulate in the port city of Vladivostock invited them.

Arguing that the United States has so far failed to invest seriously in understanding or pushing back against the problem of Russian propaganda and disinformation, Anne Applebaum, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Washington Post columnist, and Edward Lucas, a senior editor at the Economist, are launching this week a counter-disinformation initiative at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington, DC. 

While educational exchanges between the U.S. and Russia have suffered from the deterioration in bilateral relations, there are still some successful programs that are finding innovative ways to foster collaboration.

There is a growing anxiety among some observers in the EU that a disinformation strategy pursued by the Russian government since the Ukraine crisis might fragment and disintegrate the Union. It is claimed that Russia’s use of targeted disinformation is seeking to influence public opinion within the member states with the aim of paralysing decision-making processes at the EU level.

Despite the political dissimilarities between the UK and Russia, both the countries are now coming together to ensure a meaningful cultural relationship between them, by jointly celebrating their literary works. The British Council in Russia, which leads the UK's Year of Language and Literature 2016, have been discussing the influence of Shakespeare's works on the global culture, including that of Russia.