Autumn of 2024 is full of new internship programmes from ‘InteRussia’ for young professionals from abroad.

– Dmitry Valerievich, please tell us about the InteRussia programme. How did this project begin, what does it entail?

– The InteRussia internship programme was launched in 2021 by the Gorchakov Foundation in partnership with Rossotrudnichestvo, with our ‘New Generation’ («Новое поколение»). Our main task was to combine the potential of the two organisations and involve leading expert centres in this process. This includes conserving public funds, original content, excellent mentors for youth from abroad and the opportunity for unique meetings. Most importantly, InteRussia graduates remain in each other’s orbit, as well as their scientific supervisors and mentors, for a long time.

What is the programme’s essence? We bring young people (we started with international specialists) to Russia for almost a month so that they can establish a new circle of professional contacts, gain knowledge and improve their expert skills in research. As a result, they get acquainted with the Russian agenda and the view of our political science community on the processes taking place in the world, broaden their horizons and, at the same time, explore opportunities for further cooperation. The world of professionals is, after all, narrow, for which reason such horizontal ties are the most durable. At the same time, we organise meetings for them with important people in government agencies, universities and think tanks.

The first pilot project took place in the autumn of 2021, when in MGIMO young historians and political scientists wrote scientific papers the 30th anniversary of CIS and post-Soviet integration. They studied the prospects and challenges from the point of view of their countries and others – some represented Kazakhstan, some Tajikistan, etc.

The following year there were already five such events, then 8 and in 2024 – 17.

– What specialties have internships covered over the years?

– In 2022, we jointly repeated the scientific task, focusing research on the interaction between Russia and countries of the Near Abroad. In addition, young experts specialising in studying new challenges and threats were brought to our country. As is known, Russia has strong forecasting models and a serious analytical base for this kind of work.

In 2023, new topics appeared. We realised that not only international experts can have a strong professional community, but that this approach can be extended to dialogue in other spheres. Then people from different countries will definitely talk to each other with interest and in the same........

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