On Monday, June 9, 2008, the defences of the PhD dissertation by Vladmir A. Vetyukov and Rakhat S. Beysenbaev place at the Dissertation Council of the IOM.

The dissertation by V.Vetyukov is entitled The Military Science in the Time of the Lê Dynasty (1478-1789) on the Basis of “The Notes on Military Science” by Phan Huy Chú, From the 19th Century [Военное дело Вьетнама в эпоху Ле (1428-1789) по материалам „Записей о военном деле“ Фан Хюи Чу (XIX в.)]. At the defence the two official opponents, Dr A.V.Filippov, Professor at the Department of the History of Far Eastern Countries, the Faculty of Oriental Studies, St Petersburg University, and Dr A.V.Sinitsyn, senior researcher at the Department of Eastern and South Eastern Asia, The Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, the Russian Academy of Sciences, delivered their opinions. No free discussion followed. V.A.Vetykov was granted doctoral degree.

The dissertation by R. Beysenbaev is entitled The Arab Sources from the 9th to the Beginning of the 13th Century on Eastern Mawarannahr [Арабские источники IX — начала XIII вв. о Восточном Мавераннахре].  At the defence the two official opponents, Dr A.I.Koleasnikov, member of the Dissertation Council, head of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, IOM RAS, and Dr N.A.Dobronravin, Professor at the Department of the World Politics, the Faculty of International Relations, St Petersburg University, and, in free discussion, Dr S.G.Klyashtornij, head of the Department of Turkic and Mongolian Studies, IOM RAS, and Dr S.A.Frantsouzoff, academic secretary of the Dissertation Council, delivered their opinions. R.S.Beysenbaev was granted doctoral degree.