The city on the
Berezina
River had four twin-cities: Sevlievo (
Bulgaria),
Dneprodzerzhinsk
(
Ukraine),
Vladimir
and Naro-Fominsk (
Russia).
Now the Latvian Gulbene is added to the list.The new "relative" of
Bobruisk, town Gulbene, is the smallest of among
all twins, it’s population is only about 10 thousand people. However, it is the
first "EU" city, which managed to legitimize the family relations.
While the friendship between
Bobruisk
and the Bulgarian Sevlievo is about 12 years old,
Bulgaria itself became a member of
the European Union last year only.
The major enterprise in Gulbene is a dealer centre for
sales of agricultural equipment. For reference, steel wheeled tractors "
Belarus" production was recently launched
in
Bobruisk. Obviously,
the twinning, occurred based on the economic considerations and it was legally
fixed by relevant treaties.
In the meantime, partnership agreements also link
Bobruisk with Vladimir (
Russia),
Puhovo (
Slovakia), one of
the suburbs of Moscow Sokolniki and the area Anneny-Noah in
Moldova. A year
ago, another agreement was concluded with
Murom,
Vladimir region of
Russia.
Common inhabitants of
Bobruisk do not see the difference between
twinning and partnership:
“Certainly, both forms of cooperation exist so that
the city authorities could legally travel to visit each other at state cost”,
believes a vendor Anna Igorevna.
There are certain reasons behind this way of thinking.
Last year, for example, the leadership of Bobruysk traveled to
Bulgaria to talk about the future performances
of
Bobruisk
artists at the festival in Sevlievo.
The former mayor of Bobruysk Mikhail Bondarenko is also
skeptical regarding the economic cooperation with Sevlievo.
Bobruysk twin relationship with
Dneprodzerzhinsk does not go far beyond friendship
between local theaters and traveling to each other to visit theater festivals.
Partners
Bobruisk
and Sokolniki have exchanged "courtyards", i.e. children's playgrounds.
Bobruisk
businesses: bakery, confectionery and the Knitting Factory took part in the
"Fair Weekend" in 2007 in the Twin Citiy Naro-Fominsk. In the same
year in Naro-Fominsk appeared
Bobruyskaya
street.
Nadezhda Lisovskaya
Source
