Moscow celebrated, a couple of days ago, the 70th birthday of the great professor and scientist Vladimir Filippov, the former Russian education minister and president of the Russian University for Friendship among Peoples for 20 years, as hundreds of telegrams from all countries of the world poured into the Friendship University to congratulate Filippov, who is considered one of the pioneers of education in Russia in the modern era. (L-r) Sherif Gad with former Russian Minister of Education Vladimir Filippov (photo credit of the Russian Cultural Centre) Representatives from Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, and Lebanon participated in congratulating Filippov on his seventieth jubilee. Sherif Gad, the president of the Egyptian Association of Graduates from Russian and Soviet Universities, sent a telegram of congratulations to the university, in which he confirmed that Filippov made the name of the Friendship University a global name and became one of the strongest universities in the world. Gad said, "I was honored to meet the professor during his official visit to Egypt in 2003, as a minister of education, as I was chosen to work as a translator for him during his meeting with the Egyptian minister of education at the time, Ahmed Bahaa El-Din, and he drew my attention to the precise details of elementary school students in terms of the amount of homework and books that the student carries." Filippov's visit came to make a leap in the Egyptian-Russian cooperation in the field of education, Gad added. Engineer Sallam Twal, head of the Ibn Sina Association in Jordan, also asserted that all Arab graduates are so proud of this leading figure who has done a lot in support of education and Arab-Russian relations. Oleg Yastrebov, president of the Russian University of Friendship, affirmed "our university is proud of Professor Filippov for his achievements that still support us in our work." While Larisa Efremova, the university's vice president for international affairs, said that this tremendous number of congratulations from all countries of the world and everyone who worked with him from the various university departments reflects the high stature of Filippov. Filippov completed his studies in 1973 at the Faculty of Mathematical Physics and Natural Sciences in the University of Friendship among Peoples, named then Patrice Lumumba, then he was chosen in 1993 as president of the university until 1998, after passing through several positions, after which he occupied the position of the Russian Minister of Education until 2004. In 2001, under the supervision of Filippov, a programme for the modernisation and development of education in Russia was set up until 2010, with the support of Russian President Vladimir Putin, after which he returned to the Presidency of the Friendship University in 2005 until 2020, and he holds the presidency of the Higher Certification Committee from 2013 until now.