More than 500 Russian schoolchildren from various regions participated in a BRICS Festival held in Moscow. The event, combined with an open day at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University)’s pre-university education faculty, focused on the culture, languages, and activities of BRICS nations.
Igor Putintsev, MGIMO’s Vice-Rector for language and pre-university education, welcomed the students, emphasising the importance of training international specialists fluent in BRICS languages to strengthen international ties.
Anna Lisina, Editor-in-Chief of the TV BRICS news portal, highlighted the multilingual portal’s editorial work, introduced the BRICS Bloggers Team and BRICS View projects, and explained network’s information exchange with international partners. She also led a student quiz on using artificial intelligence for video script creation.
Nikita Molchakov, Dean of MGIMO’s International Law Faculty, shared insights from the IX BRICS Legal Forum, noting, “Each BRICS initiative has its own driver country. […] Even the BRICS Legal Forum, despite the fact that there are ten countries, has three drivers that have been supporting this movement for nine years: these are Russia, India and Brazil. These are the three drivers of the legal movement within the grouping.”
Aleksander Khanarov, head of the student community, discussed the BRICS Project Lab, an international student platform for generating ideas. Maria Starikova, a senior lecturer, highlighted the growing global interest in Hindi, stating, “The government is actively promoting Hindi and other local languages. There are a total of 22 official languages in India, and Hindi is attracting huge interest not only in our country but all over the world.”
The festival also featured student performances—a Chinese song, an Arabic “Dabke” dance, and a Portuguese linguo-country study—alongside a BRICS history and activities quiz. The pre-university education faculty’s open day showcased its study programmes.
The festival was organised by MGIMO’s Centre for Work with Schools and the TV BRICS International Media Network, as part of the “EastTalk MGIMO: Introduction to Oriental Studies for Schoolchildren” project, supported by the “Priority 2030” state programme. This programme aims to establish over 100 advanced universities in Russia by 2030.
