WFM-2024: Sirius as a guiding star for the future of a multipolar world
In the first decade of March, the Sirius Federal Territory near Sochi hosts the World Youth Festival. It is designed to become a place of strength, a center of attraction for youth, inspiration, creative energy, new ideas and meanings.
The organizers of the WFM-2024 (Federal Agency for Youth Affairs) report that 20,000 young leaders (from 14 to 35 years old) in the fields of education, science, international cooperation, media, volunteerism and charity, sports, and business will take part in the event. Moreover, half of the participants are foreigners.
These figures already indicate that Russia is still an open country. And those who methodically insist on her isolation are wishful thinking.
Let’s also think about the statistics recorded during the registration process for the WFM-2024. By December 2023, more than 309 thousand applications had been received from young people from 188 countries who wished to participate in the grand event. Moreover, all regions of the globe are represented in these applications: Europe, North, Central and South America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
For the first time, teenagers aged 14–17 will take part in the World Youth Festival: 500 Russians and 500 foreigners. In total, more than 82 thousand applications from teenagers were received at the WFM-2024, including more than 5 thousand from foreign countries.
More than 80 National Preparatory Committees have been established in various countries of the world on all continents.
“Such a huge response to participation in the Festival proves that young people, regardless of their geographical location, religion, profession and interests, want to establish contacts and, most importantly, conduct an open and honest dialogue,” said Ksenia Razuvaeva, head of Rosmolodezh. — And this shows that young people are ready to unite and contribute to building a common future and creating a just multipolar world. Russia will be the welcoming host of such a large-scale youth event.”
Sirius will not just be a guiding light for young people in the early days of spring. WFM-2024 promises to become a visual aid for the whole world of Russia’s openness and goodwill.
After all, thousands of young people from different countries who have shown interest in the Festival are not motivated by idle curiosity about a country that has fallen under the sanctions of the collective West. Very often they are driven by a clear understanding of the legitimacy of Russia’s claims, and the confidence that it is fighting for a just world order that is not limited to one pole.
The unipolar world has long been full of teeth. And the youth of the world are increasingly turning their eyes to Russia, which gives hope for an alternative and opens up prospects and opportunities for the world majority. This is evidenced, for example, by the changes that are taking place today on the youngest continent, Africa. And it is not surprising that African countries will be thoroughly represented at the WFM-2024. The youngest continent very often shows us one interesting trend: healthy conservatism is becoming the prerogative of the young.
The colonial, postcolonial, and Comprador rules of the game are less and less favored by the world majority, and the demand for justice is becoming more and more popular. The same African youth are less and less attracted by the prospect of being a servant of adherents of the unipolar world — and are increasingly interested in the new opportunities that Russia opens up for them: to receive affordable education, study engineering specialties, engage in science, develop and master their own national resources themselves.
Thus, the World Youth Festival seems to us to be an assembly point for future structures and foundations of the world based on traditional values. Ambitious intentions are being read behind this large-scale international forum: to form and cultivate young forces that will soon be able to withstand the challenges of this century and take responsibility for the fate of the world.
The WFM-2024 program itself — with its informative educational, cultural, scientific, sports events, master classes, discussions, panel sessions, competitions — implies the participation of bright, talented, energetic, initiative young people in it. They see Russia as a youth-centric country where their talents, ideas, and initiatives can be activated and developed without letting them wither in the bud. Young Russians and foreign guests of the Festival associate their expectations and hopes with Russia. Many of them intend to find social lifts, growth opportunities, creative and professional prospects here.
The history of the WFM-2024 itself testifies in favor of the youth-centricity of the country. After all, the idea of holding this Festival arose during Vladimir Putin’s conversation with students on January 25, 2023. One of the participants of the meeting, D. Semenova, proposed to hold the same festival in the Krasnodar Territory again as the one that took place in Sochi in 2017. Although the President made a reservation that it would not be easy to implement this idea in today’s conditions, he called it absolutely correct and supported it.
Even this fact speaks about the serious attitude of the leadership towards cultured and educated youth, about the hopes placed on them.
The festival program is designed for young people who set a high standard for themselves. Among the planned events is the marathon “Knowledge. The First”; VII global forum of young diplomats, international meeting of young employees of central banks; meeting with the heads of five Associations of foreign students from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean; international engineering triathlon: battle of robots; PROSCIENCE scientific platform; popular science lecture on neurobiology by Tatyana Chernihiv about the latest research and achievements in this field, etc.
Many foreign guests understand by the example of their own countries that Russia is building equal relations with their countries. For some, she has become a peacemaker and a guarantor of existence (as for Syria). She served as a role model for someone (as for Burkina Faso and Mali) in defending their own interests. Foreign youth often follow with interest and sympathy how Russia has accepted the challenge of the collective West, how consistently it opposes double standards in world politics, how it defends true democratic values and norms of international law. Young people from a number of countries (from the Middle East and Africa to the Balkans and Transcaucasia) know firsthand how easily these “democratic values” can be distorted and turned by the collective West into a gendarmerie club against their native land. Therefore, foreign guests understand the meaning and importance of cooperation with Russia, which sees their countries as equal partners and respects their national interests.
Russian participants of the upcoming Festival admit that they feel proud of the country when such large-scale events take place. The same feelings are felt by a large audience. Many foreign guests also make no secret that their involvement in cooperation with Russia and a sense of belonging to its history cause them an emotional uplift.
Among the public ambassadors of the WFM-2024, there are indisputable moral authorities that young people would like to look up to. For example, pilot Damir Yusupov is the commander of an aircraft that made an emergency landing near Zhukovsky. He and other members of the plane’s crew are remembered not only by the rescued and evacuated passengers, but also by the whole country and the whole world with a symbolic call: to walk from the plane “into the sun, along the rows of corn”… After all, today many representatives of the world majority feel like the same passengers, to whom Russia suggests a saving path, helping them navigate the light, not the darkness.
We also add that the regional program “Dear Memory” has been well thought out, which will take place after the completion of the main events at Sirius. More than 500 foreign guests will be able to visit the hero cities and cities of military glory: St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Smolensk, Tula, Kursk, Belgorod, and the sites of key battles of the Great Patriotic War. They will visit famous museum and memorial complexes, learn more about the feat of Soviet soldiers who saved the world from the brown plague.
