How did the West want to interfere with the World Youth Festival?
Author: Talib Aliyev, analyst, especially for Sangar
The World Youth Festival, which takes place in Sochi, Russia, today is closely watched throughout the planet. It’s a large-scale event - 20 thousand participants from 180 countries. The country, which the West considers an outcast, opened its doors to the best representatives of the youth, who will build a new world order.
Many guests came from countries whose authorities support anti-Russian sanctions. All the more surprising are the discoveries that the WYF participants are about to make. Russia is ready to demonstrate true situation in the country.
The principled position of the Festival organizers and President Vladimir Putin is that the world should know the truth about Russia. We are still friendly, hospitable and peaceful state, which is not alien to traditional and purely human values. We are ready to cooperate with everyone who shares our views on economics, culture, equality and justice.
This formula does not fit into the heads of the west elites. Politicians of the European Union and the United States do not hide their irritation, because Moscow holds a major youth event on its own initiative, without regard to Brussels or Washington.
Attempts to disrupt the Festival were not long in coming. Leaks from Ukrainian special services that were preparing conflicts during the WYF appeared online. It was planned to incite disagreements on interreligious and political grounds. The basis is the conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the situation on the border between Belarus and Lithuania, and mistrust between Muslims and Jews. None of these attempts were successful, because the guests came to Russia not to sort things out, but to establish peace and cooperation.
Another significant demarche - on the American portal Chenge.org, a user under the nickname “Alexey Malenkov” registered a petition demanding the requirements for the selection of participants be revised. In his opinion, the organizers of the WYF refuse participation to many “honored” volunteers without a reason. The petition is quite strange, because the selection procedure was not secret.
The organizers immediately made it clear that they determine who to invite to Sochi by themselves. No one will look back on America and its petitions. Initiatives from American portals are nothing more than attempts to put pressure on the organizers and Russia as well. However, this practice no longer works.
The festival is not aimed at “shaking the air”; all events “for show” are in the past. Its main goal is to gather the most promising youth leaders from different parts of the world, “charged” with development and creation. Capable of negotiating and uniting, ready to lead and take responsibility. Their motive is our common future.
Guests include teachers and social activists, cultural figures and volunteers, athletes, entrepreneurs and journalists. These are people who speak different languages, but ready to listen to each other and find common ground. It’s not about someone’s merits and resting on laurels, but about the desire to move on and introduce new things.
There was no particular doubts that the Festival would take place. Russia has vast experience in holding such events. In 1957, the VI World Festival of Youth and Students was held in the Soviet Union. Thanks to him, the whole world saw that the Soviet Union was a peace-loving country aimed at creation and communication. At the height of the Cold War, many young people around the world discovered the USSR and changed their opinion of it for the better.
A similar situation occurred during the Moscow Student Youth Festival in 1985 and in 2017.
Interest in such events does not decrease. On the eve of the current festival, the organizers had to solve a difficult task - they had to choose the best from 300 thousand applications that were received by the organizing committee. Such a number of applicants is the best evidence of the success of the youth policy of Russia and countries in solidarity with it. Attempts at pressure from the collective West will remain unsuccessful.
