List of youth forums taking place in Southern Russia/Northern Caucasus in the summer of 2010
I’m sending this post while listening to the concert that closes the youth forum Mashuk 2010 (in Pjatigorsk, Stavropolskij Kraj) open to participants from Stavropolskij Kraj, Karachaj-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Dagestan as well as (at least in theory) Abkhazia and South Ossetia. 2000 participants planned (but the actual figure is somewhat smaller).
This year a number of youth forums and youth camps has taken place in the northern Caucasus. They have been different in size and scope. Putin explicitly called for the organizations of this kind of events in the Northern Caucasus. Most of them were supported by the Russian government, by Mr. Khloponin, head of the Federal District of the Northern Caucasus and/or by Federal Agency for Youth affairs headed by Vasilij Jakemenko.
I’m writing down some thoughts about this forum, but in the meantime, I’d like to share this…
List of youth forums taking place in Southern Russia/Northern Caucasus in the summer of 2010
In May, the final stage of the “Student’s Spring” has taken place in Nal’chik, capital of Kabardino Balkaria, a festival that involves “creative students” (singers, dancers, actors, etc.) from about 70 Russian regions.
On July 18-23, Nal’chik hosted the youth forum “Kavkaz 2020", a forum planned for one thousands participants coming from all of the Russian federation (but where North Caucasus republics were disproportionally highly represented) organized by Russia’s dominant party Edinaja Rossija and its youth branch Molodaja Gvardija and largely sponsored by the regional and federal budget.
On July 23-31, the Russian Congress of Caucasian Peoples organized a youth forum called “It’s better together” in Dombaj, Karachaj-Cherkessia. Its participants were 200 “young leaders” from the region.
In July, Irex Russia (supported by USAID), organized two forums for young leaders in Kabardino Balkaria…in total, about two hundreds participants between 14 and 24 years old coming from all the territories of the Northern Caucasus.
On August 22-28, youth forum “Volga 2010” has been organized in the Volgograd region in collaboration with Edinaja Rossija. It is planned for about 1500 participants… apparently, and funnily enough, participants come from 40 Russian regions, as well as from “Abkhazia, Czech Republic, Italy and Japan”.
For September, another youth forum has been organized in the Astrakhan region (Selias 2010), dedicated to young people from the Caspian region, including people from southern Russia/northern Caucasus as well as international guests from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Azerbaijan.
Mashuk 2010
But probably the biggest of them all, and the one more openly supported by the Russian Federal structures, is the youth forum “Mashuk 2010”… planned for 2000 people, it is now drawing to its end in Pjatigorsk, in the territory of Stavropol’ (the forum started on August 8 and will close on August 26).
This list might be incomplete.
More thoughts, notes and pictures about Mashuk 2010 coming soon…
