On 16th November, the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe programme was presented during the VI St Petersburg International Cultural Forum, an exclusive debating stage, gathering thousands of experts in the field of culture from all over the world. The "Joint Meeting of Coordination Councils for Culture and Tourism under the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation" was devoted to illustrate the methodology of the programme and recent project proposals from the Russian Federation, in the presence of Alla Manilova, Deputy Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation. The event was coordinated by Olga Yarilova, Representative of the Russian Federation to the EPA Governing Board. On this occasion, the Union of Winegrowers of the Russian Federation officially joined the Iter Vitis Route, Cultural Route of the Council of Europe since 2009. Three other Routes have currently members in the Russian Federation: The Hansa (certified in 1991), The Viking Routes (certified in 1993) and Destination Napoleon (certified in 2015).

On 18th November, the Executive Secretary of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes (EPA) Stefano Dominioni, was invited to open with the Director of Department of International Cooperation (Russian Ministry of Culture), Olga Andonieva, the IV Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture (NDPC) Forum, dedicated to  “Culture as a Factor of Growth. New cultural routes and sustainable development: from theory to practice”. The NDPC was established in 2010 as the 4^th Partnership in the Northern Dimension Policy. The partnership function as a complement to already existing national and international institutions working with cultural cooperation, providing a platform to facilitate dialogue and highlight the cross-sector character of cultural and creative industries.