Russia's Dmitry Medvedev and Pope Benedict XVI in Vatican

Last year was the year of Russian Culture and Language in France and Year of French Culture and Language in Russia. While such country-wide exchanges may seem cheesy on the other side of the Atlantic, the years of culture--in fact--offer great educational, cultural, and promotional vehicles for the countries involved. Aside from many artistic, musical, cinematographic, and theatrical events (some of which I was able to catch while in Moscow in 2010), greater endeavors take place. For example, for the first time since 1914, a Russian-operated train made its trip from downtown Moscow to the coast of France on September 23, 2010. Now this is a regular route, just like in the tsars' times.

Russians actively travel to Italy. In 2009, when walking the streets of Rome, I stumbled upon a Russian Embassy to Vatican, which is an entirely separate entity from the Russian Embassy to Italy. During his conversation with the Russian President, Pope Benedict XVI said he had wished he spoke Russian. When Medvedev gave the Pope an artistic enamel with the paintings of Kremlin as a gift and told the Pope about all the Orthodox cathedrals in the Kremlin proper, Pope Bededict XVI asked the Russian president "do you live there?" Medvedev responded, "no, just work." This is a good start for the cultural exchange: Russians can learn that they are represented in the Vatican, and Italians can learn that the Russian president lives in a private house and only travels to the Kremlin for work.

Berlusconi shows Medvedev a painting