From 31 October through 6 November, Moscow’s Central House of Artists is hosting the Russian Geographical Society (RGS) Festival. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message of greetings to the festival’s participants, organisers and guests. “I am confident that this festival will become a tradition. It’s important that this event serves as a platform helping to unite people around the positive and substantive initiatives of the RGS, aimed at studying and preserving our rich national heritage, and serving to advance humanitarian, educational and creative projects, which are very much in demand,” the message reads, in part.

Taking part in the festival are delegations from various corners of Russia and from the RGS regional branches. RGS President and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu called the festival a milestone event in the nearly 170-year history of the Russian Geographical Society.

“The Russian Geographical Society Festival is a new project. I hope that it will become a tradition. The main aim of the Society, of course, is enlightenment. And this is precisely what our festival is about,” Mr Shoigu stressed in his opening address.

Director of the Sayano-Shushensky nature reserve Gennady Kiselyov presented the Wild Cats of South Siberia project, which was implemented by the Sayano-Shushensky and Khakassky nature reserves and the Pozarym wildlife refuge in 2012-2013 in cooperation with the Russian Geographical Society. This project made it possible to collect more ecological and biological data on such rare species of wild cats as the snow leopard, the manul and the lynx. Visitors and guests of the festival have been able to admire photographs and videos of these animals, obtained with the help of numerous trail cameras set up in the aforementioned state-protected areas. Wild cats feature prominently in the festival’s extensive exhibition, including on video and slide shows and printed albums. Children delightedly pose for photos next to a life-sized stuffed snow leopard.

Those interested in learning more about the snow leopard were invited to a lecture by Viktor Lukarevsky and also to an educational film about the leopards inhabiting the Sayano-Shushensky nature reserve, as well as the presentation of the photo album, The Irbis – A Living Symbol of Russia.