Global youth: bridges of understanding

Author: Andrey Razumov

World Youth

Russia is demonstrating the formation of new effective channels of communication with the whole world, attracting younger generations to this

The World Youth Festival is planned to be held in Sochi in early March. It seems that Russia again, as in the distant 1957, and then in 1985, intends to show its enemies and friends how high the potential of international cultural, economic and social interaction is, and attracts for this the most advanced and mobile part of society — youth. Against the backdrop of the unsuccessful sanctions war against Russia, this could become for the so-called collective West another example of how Moscow knows how to use “soft power.”

The festival will host 20,000 Russian and foreign young leaders in business, media, international cooperation, culture, science, education, volunteering and charity, sports, various spheres of public life, as well as teenagers representing various children’s organizations and associations.

The festival organizers say that this is the largest youth event in the world — and this is not an exaggeration. At least in the history of the 21st century. Since the Cold War between the USSR and the USA, such large-scale youth gatherings have not occurred. The World Youth Festival in Moscow in 1957 attracted 34 thousand participants, and since then this record has not been broken.

Registration for the Festival in Sochi is already closed. This points at the enormous interest from dozens of countries around the world for the Festival — and if it had been physically possible, the number of participants would easily have been not 20 thousand, but several orders of magnitude more. The GoogleTrends service shows that search queries about the Festival come from the USA, Brazil, Morocco, Pakistan, India, Egypt and a dozen other countries. Participants from several dozen states from almost all continents will come to the Festival itself.

Without any exaggeration the program of the World Youth Festival in Sochi could сause the envy even for Davos and SPIEF. The leaders of five Associations of International Students from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean will speak to the participants. The Festival will host a traditional forum of foreign policy officers from around the world working within the framework of the Russian concept of “horizontal diplomacy”. The cultural and economic programs are also matching to the standards. One of the key events of the festival week will be the arrival of Luc Besson. In addition, the participation of the famous Turkish actor Burak Özçivit is expected. The general list of all Festival events takes up several hundred items.

Speaking of “horizontal diplomacy”. As part of the VII Global Forum of Young Diplomats at the Festival more than 140 participants from 60 countries will discuss issues of the global world order. This year’s topic will be “Diplomacy in a Multipolar World.” Over the past few years its importance has grown significantly, demonstrating that statements of Western politicians as to Russia is isolated are in fact not only far from reality, but are simply one of the myths of the anti-Russian information war.

Youth “horizontal diplomacy” is a formidable weapon although, perhaps, a reference to military terminology is inappropriate here. However, Russia, by choosing young people from all over the world as its ambassadors, shows in the best possible way that the country is not only the actor on the world agenda, but is also actively shaping it for the next generations in many countries of the world. The concept of a multipolar world based on mutual respect and interaction is the working model that is being implemented at the World Youth Festival.

Let us note that the Russian leadership takes the country’s youth and their potential as a responsible part of the population very seriously. Hence the high attention to the Festival, in which the leaders of the Russian state will take part.

The holding of the World Youth Forum in Russia is perceived quite nervously in the countries of the collective West: from statements about “brainwashing” to banal attempts to ignore the event.

According to most experts, the irritation of part of the ruling Western establishment is understandable: the Kremlin is once again painfully gave them a flick on the nose, having managed to build new channels of communication with the whole world, doing well without those who cut off or literally “blew up” the West with endless packages of sanctions from Washington or Brussels. For Western thinkers an era may suddenly come when “civilized” Europe will find itself isolated from the world. The festival in Sochi only seems to bring its beginning closer.