President Putin: At the World Youth Festival in Sochi, People Will Recognize Russia As It Is
Over 250,000 applications were received from 183 countries — 20,000 outstanding youth were selected to attend
On March 1, 2024, the World Youth Festival will open in Russia. “This bright event will take place in Sochi on the Federal Territory of Sirius,” said President Vladimir Putin in a video message. “We will welcome guests from all over our planet there as our most dear guests.”
According to the Russian leader, more than 250 thousand applications have been received from 183 countries. “Such an impressive scale suggests that there is no power higher than friendship,” says the Russian President. According to the head of state, this also speaks of a great and sincere interest in the Russian Federation, as well as in the history, traditions, and values of Russia, and in its modern views on the future, which have united young people in various countries, in all parts of the world.
According to the Decree of President Vladimir Putin, the World Youth Festival will be held in order to develop international youth cooperation. From March 1 to March 7, 2024, a rich and vibrant program awaits participants on the Sirius federal territory.
The Festival will then continue with a regional program — from March 10 to 17, 2024, during which foreign participants will visit 30 Russian cities. In total, 20 thousand young leaders from Russia and abroad will take part in the World Youth Festival.
Putin expressed confidence that everyone is interested in the achievements of the Russian nation, because they really can surprise and inspire.
In Russia, he said, they want young people from all over the world to be able to recognize our country as it is: with all its natural, cultural, national diversity, with its most significant wealth — talented, purposeful people. “For the benefit of their native country, they are able to solve the most difficult problems and conquer any heights,” the Russian leader added.
Putin noted that Russia is a country of opportunity, especially for young people, who can realize their potential in this vast space.
The President has no doubt that the festival will be a significant step “towards the formation of a fair, multipolar world.” This large-scale event, in his opinion, will be able to consolidate young people in finding the solutions that the modern world order needs, in creating a strong foundation of cooperation on which relations between countries will be built.
The head of the Russian church, Patriarch Kirill, is scheduled to speak at the World Youth Festival on March 2. Christianity is the majority religion in Russia, and the vast majority of Russian Christians are members of the Orthodox Church. Thus, it is expected that thousands of festival participants will be Orthodox, looking to the Russian Patriarch as a significant spiritual leader.
Kimberly Gleason — a citizen of both America and Russia — has been invited to this year’s World Youth Festival in Sochi, both to participate in the events, and also to stand for a moment in the spotlight, directing a question to Patriarch Kirill. We look forward to seeing what she asks him, and how he responds.
Here’s a video of Kimberly delivering a stunning speech about traditional family values a little over a year ago at another high profile conference in Sochi:
“One of the goals of the World Youth Festival (WYF) is to create a platform for establishing connections between caring youth around the planet. In [March] 2024, the Festival site will become the capital of a future just world, where respect for each other, for the values and culture of different countries and peoples is at the forefront. Russia is open to everyone who strives to improve the world and create a future based on mutual dialogue and fair international cooperation,” emphasized Ksenia Razuvaeva, head of "Rosmolodezh", an organiation dedicated to supporting Russian youth.
As part of the presentation, the Festival Directorate presented the visual style of WYF-2024. The Festival logo is a stylized image of human figures, as if viewed from above. These people are different; different in character, in ideas, in culture and lifestyle, in race and nationality. But they are united by a common dream — the desire to live in a world where everyone can remain themselves, to live and develop as he likes, without being subject to coercion.
WYF-2024 will be attended by 20 thousand young leaders in the fields of business, media, education and science, international cooperation, culture, volunteering and charity, sports, and various spheres of life, including 10 thousand foreign participants.
Sources: rg.ru & апминсо.рф (Russian)