SGIA student at the plenary session of the "Strong ideas for a New Time" Forum!

21 February 2024

Traditionally, MGIMO students actively participate in federal and international events. On February 20th, the plenary session of the «Strong Ideas for a New Time» Forum was held at the Moscow World Trade Center. The forum is aimed at supporting and implementing socially significant initiatives and projects of citizens and selecting ideas to form a development strategy for Russia.

During the plenary session of the forum, the best participants of the presented projects had the opportunity to discuss their concerns with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in the format of a conversation. Irene Cecchini, a citizen of Italy, a 4th-year student of the MGIMO School of Government and International Affairs, who was the most active participant in the development of the project «Time to Live in Russia» was one of the participants of the panel discussion. Cecchini was previously solemnly awarded the MGIMO Endowment Scholarship on September 25, 2023, which is a special Endowment Scholarship for outstanding SGIA students. The School’s top international students are to be awarded a one-time payment covering 50% of the cost of their final year of undergraduate studies. The SGIA team plans to further develop the system of rewarding its best students.

 In her question, which she asked in fluent Russian that she studied at MGIMO from scratch in 4 years, Irene asked the President about the possibility of introducing the practice of «impatriation» — that is, moving to Russia for permanent residence on the basis of cultural, traditional and family values:

— «...Vladimir Vladimirovich, I have a big offer for you — to allow foreigners who share our values and who dream of moving to Russia to do it quickly. I even propose such a new word — „impatriation“, which means moving to a permanent place of residence in Russia on the basis of cultural, traditional and family values. This would be beneficial for Russia, because these people would bring new skills, they would be entrepreneurs, they would become the population of the country, this would be an additional contribution to the economy. I even propose to create a special organization for individual support and provision of services: cultural, labor and social services for people who want to move to Russia. And I even propose to organize remote informing via an Internet platform for „impatriotes“ (informing) about the possibilities of moving to Russia. Vladimir Vladimirovich, I am personally ready to help in this and get Russian citizenship in order to build my life in this great country.»

President Vladimir Putin, in response to the student, and also earlier in his speech, noted that the idea of moving foreigners close to us in spirit is exactly what Russia needs, and many people abroad share traditional values familiar to our country.

The MGIMO School of Government and International Relations