Remote Testing for Participants of the International Contest "Leader of Public Diplomacy"- 2023 has been completed

The semi-final of the II International Competition “Leader of Public Diplomacy” has finished. Project participants met with expert mentors from Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Russia and Uzbekistan, answered final test questions, and prepared essays and presentations. 30 people will reach the finals. The winners of the competition - leaders of public diplomacy - will be determined.

It will not be easy for the competition committee to decide on the finalists. Experts note the high level of preparation of the participants and creative approach to completing tasks.

“For the second year now, members of the Competition Organizing Committee and the Competition Commission are pleased with the level of the participants’ involvement in the educational intensive and practical tasks. This year we will publish some works, there are some very worthy essays. In general, the competition received projects with a high degree of elaboration and good results. A high proportion of projects relate to the sphere of culture and the preservation of historical memory. A distinctive feature of this year's program was the sports sector. There are very strong projects in this area,” - said Natalia Zabolotskikh, coordinator of the International Competition “Leader of Public Diplomacy”, Deputy Head of the General Secretariat of the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly.

Representatives of the non-profit sector from 19 countries and 15 regions of Russia took part in the educational program of the project.

The experts of the educational webinar were:

• Andrei Belianinov, Secretary General of the International Union of Non-Governmental Organizations "Eurasian Peoples' Assembly" (Russia);
• Svetlana Smirnova, First Deputy Secretary General - Head of the General Secretariat of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly, member of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Interethnic Relations (Russia);
• Evgenia Mikhaleva, Director of the ANO “Resource Center in the Sphere of National Relations” (Russia);
• Irina Galanova, Deputy Chairman of the Assembly of Peoples of Russia, Creative Director of MG NEOIGROTECH, member of the Coordination Council of the National Parents Association (Russia);
• Natalia Zabolotskikh, political scientist, political strategist, head of the press service of the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly, coordinator of the project “LEADER OF PEOPLE’S DIPLOMACY” (Russia);
• Daria Bozhko, Executive Director of the ANO Center for Support and Development of Public Initiatives - Creative Diplomacy (Russia);
• Nina Shtanskikh, Leading Researcher at the Department of International Relations, North-West Institute of National Economy and Public Administration, RANEPA (Russia);
• Evgeniy Kleshch, community manager of the New Media Workshop project (Russia);
• Dmitry Polikanov, Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo) (Russia);
• Ekaterina Torubarova, Head of the Public Diplomacy Department of the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo) (Russia);
• Vera Tabak, Lecturer at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, one of the authors of the report “Practice of public diplomacy in Russian regions (2017-2021)” (Russia);
• Kabuljon Sabirov, Director of the Center for Public Diplomacy of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (Uzbekistan);
• Dimitar Ivanov, Director of the “Institute of Leadership” within the State University of Library Science and Information Technologies, Professor, Doctor of historical sciences (Bulgaria);
• Diana Kovela, Deputy Director of the Creative Industries Foundation of the Ulyanovsk Region, (Russia);
• Natalya Burlinova, Founder of the Center for Creative Diplomacy, Associate Professor at the Financial University, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, Russian State University for the Humanities, Ph.D. (Russia);
• Alexey Avdonin, Expert, Belarusian Institute of Strategic Studies (Belarus);
• Haykaz Mikaelyan, Advisor to the Head of the FADN of Russia (Russia);
• Ainur Zaurbekova, Civil Alliance of Kazakhstan (Kazakhstan);
• Svetlana Sharenkova, Deputy Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples' Assembly, Chairman of the Bulgaria-Russia Forum (Bulgaria).

To qualify for the finals of the Competition, participants were offered the following topics to complete a practical task: “Interregional relations in the system of public diplomacy”, “New media and artificial intelligence technologies to help the people’s diplomat”, “Modern etiquette and intercultural communications in the work of the people’s diplomat”, “The University as an effective tool of public diplomacy”, “The image of the future of public diplomacy. New formats of work in the context of restructuring the system of international relations”, “The fate of the book in the 21st century”.

The finalists will be determined based on the results of this task. They will be announced by the expert committee on November 14. The final of the competition will be held in December 2023 as part of the Perm International Forum.

Solutions of the best cases will be published on the project website in a special section: http://people's diplomacy.rf/o-nas/keis

The competition is held by the “Assembly of Peoples of Russia” LLC with the support of the Presidential Grants Foundation; Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Interethnic Relations; State Duma Committee on Issues of Nationalities of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation; Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation; Federal Agency for Ethnic Affairs; Commission of the Civic Chamber on Harmonization of Interethnic and Interreligious Relations of the Russian Federation and the International Union of Non-Governmental Organizations "Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly".