It is important that the decision to award the Union State prizes is made by professionals - I. Bambiza

July 13, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. Deputy State Secretary of the Union State Ivan Bambiza, at a creative meeting with laureate of the Union State Prize in Literature and Art for 2011-2012 Georgy Poplavsky, emphasized the importance of the decision on awarding this prize being made by professionals, BELTA correspondent reports. Given the significance of the award and the high creative level of its contenders, it is important that the decision on awarding the prize is made professionally, Ivan Bambiza noted. "This is exactly the composition of the expert commission: all of them are highly professional people - People's Artists, painters, composers... These are iconic people who have earned recognition and trust through their professionalism," the Deputy State Secretary emphasized, adding that friendly criticism and proposals on this issue will be taken into account. On behalf of all Belarusians and Russians, Ivan Bambiza thanked the laureates of the Union State Prize in Literature and Art for 2011-2012, People's Artist of Belarus Georgy Poplavsky and Russian poet Gleb Gorbovsky, for their creative contribution to strengthening fraternal relations between the two countries. Due to health reasons, Gleb Gorbovsky could not attend the award ceremony and creative meeting, but he sent a warm telegram in which he promised to create many more works about Belarus and Russia, and the friendship of peoples. The Union State Prize in Literature and Art has been awarded every two years since 2002. During this time, its laureates have included actors Alexey Petrenko, Rostislav Yankovsky, Alexander Kalyagin and Vladimir Gostyukhin, playwright Alexey Dudarev, theater director Sergey Artsibashev, writers Ivan Shamyakin and Stanislav Kunyaev, painters Mikhail Savitsky and Valentin Sidorov, composer Alexandra Pakhmutova and maestro Mikhail Finberg, People's Artist of Belarus Leonid Shchemelev, the author's team consisting of People's Architect of Russia Yuri Grigoriev, sculptors of Belarus Lev Gumilevsky and Sergey Gumilevsky, sculptors of Russia Yuri Orekhov and Grigory Orekhov, as well as the author's team consisting of People's Artists of the USSR Alexey Tkachev and Sergey Tkachev. The expert council includes Chairman of the public association "Belarusian Union of Theater Workers", Honored Artist of Belarus Alexey Dudarev, People's Artist of Belarus Valentin Elizaryev, People's Artist of Belarus, Artistic Director of the National Film Studio "Belarusfilm" Alexander Efremov, Chairman of the Union of Artists of Russia, People's Artist of Russia Andrey Kovalchuk, Artistic Director of the Moscow State Academy of Choreography, laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes of the USSR, People's Artist of the USSR Mikhail Lavrovsky, Editor-in-Chief of the Literary Gazette Yuri Polyakov, First Deputy Chairman of the Union of Theater Workers of the Russian Federation, People's Artist of Russia Evgeny Steblov, and other famous cultural and art figures. -0-