Andrei Sakharov Foundation Forums

In May 1991, the 70th anniversary of Sakharov's birth, and The Andrei Sakharov Foundation (USA)sponsored an International Sakharov Congress in Moscow dedicated to two major themes:

• promoting the rule of law in the USSR; andnuclear safety after Chernobyl.

More than 300 Russian scientists, political leaders, and scholars and more than 50 foreign experts took part in Congress seminars, and their recommendations were submitted to government agencies and concerned organizations. The most unforgetable event of the Congress was the memorial concert held in Moscow Conservatory on May 21. Rostropovich and Richter performed brilliantly. Presidents Gorbachev and Yeltsin attended, as well as Portugal's President Soares and other foreign dignitaries. But most important, the Moscow liberal intelligentsia turned out in force for the occasion, which served in a way as a dress rehearsal for their response to the reactionaries' attempted coup the following August.

A number of important initiatives by The Sakharov Foundations were direct follow-upsto the Congress. Thus, a group of international observers from Congress made several trips to the Nagorno-Karabakh region where an armed conflict involving Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia was rapidly developing. Subsequently, work in the areas of ethnic conflicts became an important component of the activities of the Sakharov Foundations. The Congress also facilitated the creation of .