2 December 2022
The third season of the InteRussia fellowship program for foreign specialists has come to an end. The fellowship was jointly organized by MGIMO in cooperation with the Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund and Rossotrudnichestvo and was held at the the Institute for International Studies (IIS) and the ASEAN Centre from October 24 to December 2.
Over the six weeks period the internship program participants explored the most urgent historical and political issues related to the great and middle powers in Eurasia, Latin America and Africa. Dr. Ekaterina Koldunova, Director of the ASEAN Centre, Dr. Irina Bolgova, Head of the Department for Academic Development of the IIS, Dr. Vladislav Vorotnikov, Director of European Studies Center of the IIS, Dr. Elena Maslova Dr. Andrzej Habarta, Senior Fellows of the Center, and Dr. Ivan Loksharev, Research Fellow at the IIS Center of Middle East and African Studies supervised the interns’ research.
On December 1, the IIS hosted a round-table where the internship participants presented the results of their research projects: "Unidos o Dominados: a Geopolitical Code for South-America" by Mr. Juan Martin Gonzales Cabañas, MA Student on “Defence and Strategy” of National Defence University of Argentina; “BRICS: A Real Alternative to Global Governance? The Discourses on Economic Development and Cooperation” (by Mr. Boris Perius Zabolotsky, PhD Student of Political Studies, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul); "Russia – India – China Strategic Triangle: Opportunities and Challenges in Energy Field" (Ms. Kavya Munduri, MA Student on Chinese studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University); “How Do Sanctioned Countries Promote Trade?” (Mr. Phone Su Soe, General Manager of Shwe Than Lwin Bank, Shwe Than Lwin Holdings Conpany); "The Image of Yugoslavia in the Russian Media during the Sanction Pressure on the Country: 1992-1995" (Ms. Milana Zhivanovic, Research Fellow, Institute for Recent History of Serbia); "The Position of the United States towards South Sudan Independence" (Mr. David Cesar Wani Suliman, PhD Student, Institute of Political Studies and Public Administration of Shandong University, China).
The interns highly appreciated the program and its significance for their own research and academic contacts.
“Our education in international relations field is dominated by the Western approaches, and this internship helped me broaden my professional horizons,” Ms. Kavya Munduri responds on her internship impressions. Mr. Phone Su Soe from Myanmar believes that the InteRussia fellowship program makes a significant contribution in bilateral cooperation development in Russia-Myanmar academic and educational spheres.
“In other countries there are various stereotypes about Russia, but after my six weeks stay here I realized that they are wrong,” Mr. Boris Perius Zabolotsky assumed.
The internship supervisors also highlighted the program uniqueness. “The internship participants not only got acquainted with the Russian academic centers, but also gave us the opportunity to study their national approaches – particularly that was the case of my supervising David from South Sudan,” Dr. Ivan Loshkarev said.
According to Mr. Nikita Lipunov the IIS program coordinator, every new program expands not only geography of participants’ enrollment, but also the quality of their work increases. “During this internship program wave we managed to include an educational module and the participants were able to refresh their knowledge about the structure and methodology of academic research and detail their projects,” Mr. Nikita Lipunov responds.
On December 2, the closing ceremony of the program was held at the Gorchakov Fund that was attended by H.E. Mr. Leonid Drachevsky, the Executive Director of the Gorchakov Fund, and Dr. Maxim Suchkov, Director of the Institute of International Studies. “This is the first wave in English for foreign countries, and we intend to develop this program direction. During the six weeks stay in Moscow you get acquainted with our country, thus such internships provide not only an academic, but also a significant cultural opportunities,” Dr. Maxim Suchkov addressed the participants.
The first program wave took place in November-December 2021. During this wave out of 47 applications five foreign researchers were accepted. The second wave of fellowships took place in March-April 2022 and was attended by ten specialists.
InteRussia fellowships are implemented in the framework of strategic academic leadership program Priority 2030.
The application requirement for the spring wave of the InteRussia fellowship program will be announced in upcoming weeks.
