Voice of Russian and Kazakh Youth Will Be Heard

March 16, in Chelyabinsk, the first meeting of the "Voice of Russia's Youth" discussion club was held, which brought together student activists.

The meeting was attended by students of the School of Economics and Management at South Ural State University and Karaganda Economic University of Kazpotrebsoyuz. Together with experts, they discussed the problems of media security in Central Asia.

The idea of opening the club aroused the interest of students, as evidenced by the number of those present, and the informal discussion that began even before the opening of the event. The meeting was greeted by Yevgeny Medvedev, deputy chairperson of the Public Youth Chamber under the Legislative Assembly of the Chelyabinsk Region, and Ayapbergen Taubayev, director of the Center for Monitoring and Development of the Scientific and Research Work of Kazpotrebsoyuz University who stressed that Eurasian integration lacked youth creativity: startups, non-standard projects, and new ideas are needed.

On behalf of Kazakh people, the meeting was addressed by the head of the Kazakh public center "Azamat" Kanat Seitikov, who noted that joint projects with the fund were always interesting and successful. Igor Lashmanov, deputy head of Business Union of Eurasia of Chelyabinsk region He said that the next SCO summit will be held in Chelyabinsk. "For our young people this is a great opportunity to show themselves, to realize their projects, and to share in the common cause," he stressed.

Ekaterina Teltsova, the chairperson of the Youth Assembly of the Peoples of the Southern Urals, noted, “The main thing in youth policy is trust. The trust of young people should be earned, and for this purpose, not declarative statements but daily work is important. It is for this that the discussion club is established." Continuing this idea, the president of the Eurasian Commonwealth fund Victor Katochkov stressed that "the club would become a platform for the realization of the interests of Russian and Kazakh students, harmoniously inscribed in the youth space."

Deputy chairperson of the Assembly of Peoples of Chelyabinsk region, director of the Center for National Unity Sergey Bredikhin cited unsettling statistics of extremist activities on the Internet, which explains the need to strengthen security measures. Developing this topic, the fund's expert Irina Okolnishnikova noted, "Internet forms a special reality with its values, ways of thinking, and language. In the network, there are favorable conditions for impact akin to the scenarios of "color revolutions". Therefore, we must gather at a round table and discuss hot issues face to face."

A member of the Chamber of Entrepreneurs of the Karaganda region Elena Petrenko spoke about the experience of ethnomediation and the development of intercultural values through the study of everyday life, holding of festivals and flash mobs using national traditions. The reporter proposed to include them in the club's work, "We need joint leisure activities, joint holidays and common lifestyle, and then Russian and Kazakh youth will understand each other." This proposal aroused the approval of those present. Ekaterina Teltsova offered to implement a joint Russian-Kazakhstan project of youth intercountry cooperation and encouraged everyone to participate in it.

The expert of the fund Pavel Butakov told how to preserve the memory of the Great Victory in modern realities. He stressed that in the history of each people there were moments when its fate was decided. "Sometimes this is not a matter of freedom or prosperity, but of the life and death of a civilization. Such a moment was the Great Patriotic War. And it is the shaping of an social activism that is a worthy response to the challenges of our time. It is necessary to pay great attention to the military-patriotic education of young people."

Elizaveta Shchetinina, the head of the Center for Cultural and Religious Studies, Socio-Political Technologies and Educational Programs spoke about the cyber threat, which is at the back of social networks, and about the experience of combating it, focusing on methods of ensuring media security of young people. This again provoked a discussion: the club members discussed how ethno-confessional relations were being built in the regions where different nationalities coexist. These include, for example, the Southern Urals, Volga region, and Northern Kazakhstan.

Artemiy Teltsov, the deputy chairperson of the Youth Assembly of the Peoples of the Southern Urals, proposed to conduct field meetings of the club in the universities of the Southern Urals and Kazakhstan, "Eurasia is a very large formation in which the geopolitical interests of many countries are tied. And it is important that young people perceive Eurasia broadly as a common home, building their life in line with these values."

At the end of the meeting, an interactive tournament "Innovative Solutions Factory" was held, in which students from Chelyabinsk and Karaganda took part. Its participants agreed that the club provides an opportunity for the development of the communication field of the student youth movement "Eurasian Express: Russia - Kazakhstan - Tajikistan". It is the search for like-minded people, the expansion of the circle of youth leaders with a pro-active approach to life and current thinking of the world, whose voice is capable of giving new features to the Eurasian space. The next meeting of the club will take place in a couple of weeks in Kostanay.

The project is being implemented with the use of the RF President’s grant for the development of civil society provided by the Presidential Grants Foundation.

March 16, in Chelyabinsk, the first meeting of the "Voice of Russia's Youth" discussion club was held, which brought together student activists.