By Adnan Hameed TWA _____ The Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Pakistan Albert P. Khorev inaugurated renovated and upgraded classrooms for teaching and promoting Russian language at the Punjab University, here on Wednesday. Vice Chancellor Prof Dr. Khalid Mahmood welcomed the Russian ambassador, said a PU press note. The Russian delegation included Head of Russian House in Pakistan Ruslan M. Prokhorove and others, while Principal Oriental College Prof Dr. Nabila Rehman, Director Institute of Languages and Linguistics Dr Hafiz Muqit, Assistant Professor Russian Language Dr Ekaterina Gavrishchuk and faculty members were also present. The classrooms were upgraded with the funding from the Russian government institution i.e Federal Agency of the Russian Federation under ‘Rossotrudnichestvo’ project, which provided a largescale modernisation of Russian language classes located in all countries of the world as part of the international humanitarian programme. Ambassador Khorev told the audience that Russia and Pakistan had excellent relations. He said that Russia was promoting economic relations with Pakistan and for the first time Pakistan-Russia trade volume had crossed $1 billion mark. He said that there was a need to promote cooperation between Russian and Pakistani institutions in many fields. He said that Lahore and Punjab University would play a role in promoting Pakistan- Russia relations. Furthermore, he said Russian language centres had also been set up in Karachi and Sargodha. He said he would support promotion of comparative analysis of Pakistani and Russian literature for better understanding of each other. He also stressed the need to promote cultural relations between Pakistan and Russia. He thanked the Punjab University for promoting Russian language. Vice-Chancellor Dr. Khalid Mehmood said that he wants to promote academic relations with Russian universities.