2005 Press Releases
Deputy Chief of Mission John Beyrle Visits Perm, Yekaterinburg, and Shchuchye, Kurgan Oblast.
May 13, 2005
The first stop on Mr. Beyrle’s three-day trip to the Urals (May 11-13) was Perm, where he opened an exhibit of U.S. and Soviet WWII posters. The poster exhibit, which traveled to Perm after showings in Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk, will be on display in the Culture-Business Center through the end of the month, and will then move on to Izhevsk, Udmurtiya. At the exhibit opening, Mr. Beyrle described the experiences of his own father, a WWII veteran who saw combat in both the U.S. and Soviet armies, and met with several Russian war veterans.
The following day, Mr. Beyrle visited the Perm-36 GULAG camp, now a museum
which preserves the history of the GULAG. That evening he continued on Yekaterinburg, where Consul General Scott Rauland hosted a reception in his honor. This was Mr. Beyrle’s second visit to Yekaterinburg, and at the reception he had the opportunity to say
good-bye to over 40 local officials, businessmen and friends before finishing his assignment in Russia this summer.
Mr. Beyrle concluded his visit to the Urals region with a visit on May 13 to Shchuchye, Kurgan Oblast, which is the location of the Chemical Weapons Destruction Facility being built with U.S. funding to help Russia comply with the Chemical Weapons Convention. U.S. managers
in charge of the project briefed Mr. Beyrle on their progress. Mr. Beyrle also met with representatives of the local government and the Green Cross to hear their views and concerns about the Chemical Weapons Destruction Facility Project.
Terry Myers, USAID Director for Russia, accompanied Mr. Beyrle on the visit. Mr. Meyers met with USAID contractors in Perm and discussed the role of USAID’s Communities for
International Development program in Shchuchye.
