For many, it was a once-in-lifetime experience due to its high volume of competitiveness to get into and the irregular nature of happening which makes it more lucrative. This year the World Youth Festival or WYF-2024(supposed successor of the 'World Festival of Youth and Students') happened in Sochi, Russia. As the main event of the festival took place at the Olympic Park in Sirius Federal Territory in Sochi(Krasnodar Krai region) along with the coast of the Black Sea(the warmest place in Russia) students and youths from more than 180 countries gathered; they embraced new friends and exchanged culture and ideas from February 29 to March 07, 2024. Following this main event, they were divided into random groups by the festival organizers and headed towards different regions including 46 oblasts(state-like administrative divisions), 21 autonomous republics and federal districts to understand the Russian Federation way more closely and practically. This vast nature of the festival makes it one of the largest of this type of youth gathering across the world and in history.
In the late 80s during the Cold War era, American political scientist Joseph Nye delivered the theory of soft power in an article he wrote for the Foreign Policy magazine where he coined the concept of the smart-power strategy of one country that necessarily combines both hard and soft power. Unlike hard power through soft power, a country persuades others using different diplomatic tools and techniques e.g. excelsior political values, enriched culture, and justifiable foreign policy with a strong moral basis that aligns with global and regional wellbeing rather than traditional military coercion or financial offering. As a key soft power tool public diplomacy deals with winning the foreign public's heart and soul through fostering relationships and promoting foreign policy objectives by undertaking different initiatives to attract the international community.
When it is about Russia's power and might, people first assume its military capability and hard power, however, what often remains undiscussed is its soft-power strategy and a fleeteye-catching shift and growth in this sector at least throughout the last decade. To implement its vision of 'the New World Order' or the much-proclaimed notion by Vladimir Putin- 'a multipolar world', Russia's current foreign policy enormously emphasises soft power at the same time. In the recently-passed World Youth Festival, some 20,000 youths gathered in Russia among them 10,000 were from abroad including from the so-called rival nations e.g. the US and allied EU and Western countries. It can be easily assumed that a gross amount of expenditure was allocated for organizing this festival which includes the chief festival venue arrangements as well as food and accommodation for the participants for the entire period and even the flight tickets for many participants of high value.
In regard to maintaining the 'Carrot and Stick' foreign policy like other global hegemons, Russia is now more focused on the carrots(rewards) than sticks(punishments) toward other nations. In the recently passed Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum(SPIEF), President Putin stated that the unemployment rate in Russia is now at a record low(2.6% last April), the country is diversifying its economy with special emphasis on bolstering a knowledge-based economy and it is projected that by the next 10 years, 40 university campuses will appear in Russia with super advanced facilities and competitive outcomes.
Russia is opening up at its best in history. Proving the sanctions boomerang, Russia according to the World Bank's latest data has transitioned from an upper-middle to a high-income country. For investors it is gradually becoming a business destination, for international students it is ready with a lucrative world-class education with superior perks than before. Its foreign policy is now more focused on developing ties with global organisations like BRICS+ and at the same time with regional cooperation with CIS, CSTO, EEU and SCO nations. In the upcoming BRICS+ summit in Kazan in October this year under Russia's chairmanship, a surprising move is expected toward efforts for de-dollarisation or against the so-called "dollar dictatorship" of the US. With these, the enlargement of the BRICS+economic block towards the visionary goal of a 'more just multipolar new world order' with the rise of the Global South is on the agendas where the younger generation has roles to play.
The writer is a prospective graduate student of International Relations at RUDN University, Moscow under the Russian Government Scholarship and a participant at WYF-2024
