Our Russian-speaking group members faced ISPS first in 2000. At that time five Stavropol and St. Petersburg professionals were invited by Svein Haugsgjerd to participate in the ISPS congress in Stavanger. For the next years a fruitful Russian-Norwegian collaboration developed in the field of contemporary psychiatry with the support of The Mental Health Information Foundation “Psykopp”. Gerd-Ragna Bloch Thorsen, Jan Olav Johannessen, Jan-Erik Nilsen, Anna-Lisa Oksnevad and many other visited Stavropol to share knowledge and experience. And health care professionals from Stavropol annually travel to Stavanger on Schizophrenia Days.