On July 13, Vitebsk /Olga Bogacheva - BELTA/. Deputy State Secretary of the Union State Ivan Bambiza, at a creative meeting with Georgiy Popovksy, laureate of the Union State Prize in Literature and Art for 2011-2012, emphasized the importance of the decision on awarding this prize being made by professionals, BELTA correspondent reports. Taking into account the significance of the award and the high creative level of the applicants, it is important that the decision on awarding the prize is made professionally, Ivan Bambiza noted. "This is precisely the composition of the expert commission: all highly professional people are there – People's Artists, painters, composers... These are prominent figures who have earned recognition and trust through their professionalism," emphasized the Deputy State Secretary, adding that constructive criticism and suggestions on this matter will be taken into account. On behalf of all Belarusians and Russians, Ivan Bambiza thanked the laureates of the Union State Prize in Literature and Art for 2011-2012, People's Artist of Belarus Georgiy Popovksy and Russian poet Gleb Gorbovsky, for their creative contribution to strengthening fraternal relations between the two countries. Due to health reasons, Gleb Gorbovsky could not attend the award ceremony and creative meeting, but he sent a warm telegram in which he promised to create many more works about Belarus and Russia, and the friendship of peoples. The Union State Prize in Literature and Art has been awarded every two years since 2002. During this time, its laureates have included actors Alexey Petrenko, Rostislav Yankovsky, Alexander Kalyagin and Vladimir Gostyukhin, playwright Alexey Dudarev, theatre director Sergey Artsibashev, writers Ivan Shamyakin and Stanislav Kunyaev, painters Mikhail Savitsky and Valentin Sidorov, composer Alexandra Pakhmutova and maestro Mikhail Finberg, People's Artist of Belarus Leonid Shchemelev, the author's team comprising People's Architect of Russia Yuri Grigoriev, sculptors of Belarus Lev Gumilevsky and Sergey Gumilevsky, sculptors of Russia Yuri Orekhov and Grigory Orekhov, as well as the author's team comprising People's Artists of the USSR Alexey Tkachev and Sergey Tkachev.