Director of Foreign Ministry’s Department for North America Comes to MGIMO

Director of Foreign Ministry’s Department for North America Comes to MGIMO

3 October 2018

October 3rd, Georgiy Borisenko, Director of the North America Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry gave a talk to students of the University in the framework of the Diplomatic Module. The guest was greeted and introduced to the audience by Yuri Raikov, Professor at the Department of Diplomacy.

Georgiy Borisenko began his talk by describing the structure of his department, noting that it covers only two countries, the USA and Canada. Additionally, of the six spanisions in the department, only one is completely dedicated to Canada, another focuses on the economies of both countries and the four other spanisions deal exclusively with the United States.

The diplomat spoke about bilateral relations, reminding the audience about some of the most recent thorny issues. While when he came to power, President Obama had expressed the desire to improve relations with Russia, by 2011 no progress had been made. From then on, the situation worsened and sanctions against our country were repeatedly implemented.

Regarding Russia’s alleged intervention in the US elections, Georgiy Borisenko remarked that Russia was used by Hillary Clinton’s team as a tool to damage Donald Trump’s prospects and that anti-Russian sentiments are omnipresent in both parties. The diplomat concluded his speech by inviting the students to undergo placements within the foreign ministry.

— See the MGIMO web-site for more photos and russian version