Today, rescuers are searching again the area Sukhoy Log in the Tandy kozhuun of Tuva, where a 69-year-old woman from the village Vladimirovka, Yelena Syurkova, disappeared on June 6. The woman went with her friends to pick berries, but never returned from the taiga. At first, only her relatives started a search, but later local people got involved, then rescue workers and the militia.

Unforeseen circumstances, which brought the famous traveler Fedor Konyukhov to Tuva, became a basis for a press-conference, which took place on June 16 in the Government House.

Vice-Premier of the Government of Republic Tuva Anatolii Damba-Khuurak, minister of health protection of the republic, Aleksandr Oorzhak, and a representative of the government of Kalmykia, the curator of the project “Along the Great Silk Road”, writer and savant Vasilii Tserenov met with local journalists to answer their questions.

Michelle Feynman, whose father was Richard Feynman (1918-1988), laureate of Nobel Prize for physics, and one of the participants in the atom bomb project, came to Tuva on June 8.

She is accompanied by Ilona Vinogradova, a BBC correspondent. This visit is expected to result in a radio program about the dream of the scientist – to visit the republic in the center of Asia, which Feynman had been trying to visit for almost 20 years.

Tuvan physicians believe that Fedor Konyukhov’s deterioration of health was caused by tick-bite rickettsiasis. On June 11, because of acute deterioration of his health, the famous traveler was met by a team of Tuvan health workers at the border-crossing point in Khandagaity, and transported to the infectious disease hospital in Kyzyl, where he is now receiving medical help.

Famous traveler Fedor Konyukhov was forced to interrupt his participation in his international project “Along the Great Silk Road”, which started

on May 13 in Ulan-Bator, because of illness.

He felt the first symptoms of illness on June 3. On June 9, after an acute deterioration of his health status he turned for medical help to the hospital in Ulangom, the administrative center of Uvs-Nuur aimak of Mongolia.

However, the system of health care of the aimak turned out not to be prepared to handle the diagnostic procedures. The hospital did not have even the most basic requirements - light and necessary medications.

The entire republic was watching the action “Help Arat!”, which was initiated to help 7-year-old Arat Mongush. It started on April1 of this year from an announcement by Tuvan students on the Internet. Our countrymen notified us, that a little boy from Chadan is in treatment in one of St. Peterburg hospitals. The boy had had expensive surgery, and needed money to pay for his therapy.

His house is the Taiga. He is a holder of sports awards in skiing and parachuting. And he has a pistol of the “Nagan” brand.

He is a veteran of work, holder of a memorial medal “300 years of mining-geological service to Russia”. He is an expert prospector of the depths of the earth, who discovered, in Tuva, the Kara-Beldir golden knot.

He is a geologist. For young people, who are coming back to the profession that was once surrounded by romanticism, the profession which suffered a temporary set-back during the post-perestroika times, he is a living legend.

He is Valeriy Serafimovich Gorshkov, and for those that know him, simply Serafimych.

The Days of Tuva in Krasnoyarsk started off on May14, 2009, by the signature of Agreement of Co-operation between the business organization of Siberia “Siberia without borders” and the Union of Businessmen of Tuva.

The document, anticipating mutual interactions between the business communities of Tuva and Krasnoyarsk region, was signed by Eres Chuldum and Valerii Malanin.

The forgotten ally of USSR in Second World War

It seems that there are no more “white spots” left in the history of WWII. However, some pages of the history seem to have been more of less forgotten. The part of Tuvan National Republic as an ally of the USSR has been almost completely left out. Even though the help from Mongolia has been described in detail, there was practically no mention of Tuva.

The Days of Tuva in Krasnoyarsk region will open on May 15.

In the morning, meetings between the leadership of Tuva and the students and aspirants of Siberian federal university will take place. Then the Agreement of co-operation between the two neighboring regions will be signed in the building of the Administration.

One of the exhibitions presented will include photographs of Old Tuva from the early years of the last century, which were taken by a native of Krasnoyarsk region, who later became the first photographer of Tuva, and the first director of the Tuvan museum, Vladimir Yermolaev.