In course of their business trip to Moscow and New York, MUNRFE Governing Council Chairperson Mr. Vitaly Savenkov and Vladivostok Club Vice-President Ms. Alexandra Kosyreva had an opportunity to broaden MUNRFE connections with the United Nations Department of Public Information.

On 5 February Mr. Vitaly Savenkov visited the United Nations Information Centre in Moscow, where he had a meeting with its Director Mr. Vladimir Kuznetsov, along with UNIC National Information Officer Mr. Vladimir Pavinskiy, UNIC Team Assistant Ms. Irina Gadzhieva and Churkin International Model UN representative Mr. Akop Torosyan. The parties had extensive negotiations about promotion of the UN-related activities on the territory of Russia, including the Russian Far East, and cooperation in the sphere of Model UN. Overall, both MUNRFE and UNIC expressed sincere interest in activities of each other, thus the actual cooperation is expected to begin later this year.

In autumn 2017 the ASEAN Centre in MGIMO University and the ASEAN Moscow Committee conducted the Essay Writing Competition dedicated to the theme “ASEAN at 50: Achievements, Challenges and New Opportunities for Cooperation with Russia”. According to the results of the contest, MUNRFE Executive Director Ms. Elena Kiseleva was recognized as one of the best essay authors and will be awarded with special gifts from the Embassies of ASEAN member states.

The competition was organized for students and young professionals from Russia and ASEAN member states who are interested in the history and contemporary developments of ASEAN-Russia relations. MUNRFE has always expressed its interest in ASEAN-related events, thus, the contest became a great opportunity for MUNRFE members to deepen and enhance their knowledge in the sphere of Russia-ASEAN cooperation and to explore the prospects for its development.

It is a great pleasure for us to announce that the process of considering applications for one of the most spectacular events of this summer - "FireStarter 2018" - is about to start. We are proud to have been implementing this Summer Program for more than 10 years, and so traditionally giving teens an amazing opportunity to boost their self-development, to realize some of the most daring ambitions, and most importantly, to fully immerse into the English speaking environment without flying miles away abroad or even leaving the Russian Far East.

The Summer Program will gather young leaders from the entire region and will unite them for the period of two weeks to make long-lasting friendship. Participants of the Program will go through different lectures, trainings, and master classes aimed at acquiring and further developing such useful capacities as leadership, public speaking and the art of convincing others, debating skills, successful team-building, time management, ways of reaching new goals and heights, and many more.

On February 8-11, MUNRFE Executive Director, Ms. Elena Kiseleva, Vice-President of Vladivostok Club, Ms. Alexandra Kosyreva and the Chairman of MUNRFE Governing Council, Mr. Vitaly Savenkov have successfully accomplished their duties as a part of Secretariat at World Federation of the United Nations Associations (WFUNA) International MUN (WIMUN) 2018 in New York, USA. For the first time in MUNRFE history, its representative, Ms. Elena Kiseleva, became a member of the Senior Secretariat, in particular – Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly Affairs and Conference Management. In turn, having completed a competitive international selection process Mr. Vitaly Savenkov and Ms. Alexandra Kosyreva were appointed as a Security Council Director (University) and a Secretary of the General Assembly Committee (High School) respectively.

In January 2018 MUNRFE Governing Council unanimouosly re-elected Mr. Vitaly Savenkov as its Chairman. Mr. Savenkov has previously served as a Chairman of the Governing Council for one term since January 22, 2017. During his term Ms. Savenkov has been sharing his knowledge and experience with current MUNRFE leadership in order to facilitate its productive work and to contribute to the overall development of the Organization. Throughout his MUNRFE career Ms. Savenkov has obtained numerous skills and capacities though different positions and projects. Moreover, he possesses a profound international experience, having represented MUNRFE worldwide at different large-scale events.

MUNRFE believes that it is essential to ensure knowledge transition from previous generations of MUNRFE leadership to the young ones. That is why the Governing Council came to a common decision to vote in favor of Mr. Savenkov's candidacy.

The new academic semester in Blagoveshchensk MUNRFE Club promises to be rich in activities as its first event - Spring School 2018 is yet to come! With the support of Amur State University (AmSU) and MUNRFE Vladivostok Club as well as distinguished guests from Amur Region government, Blagoveshchensk Club welcomes all the students of universities, schools and lyceums of Blagoveshchensk and Amur Region to join the School as participants. Spring MUNRFE School will be conducted from February 26 to March 10 in Amur State University.

During two weeks of educational lectures and trainings young leaders will expand their general outlook as well as gain unique knowledge about MUNRFE as an Organization and basic skills that its members can obtain. Being fully involved into the learning process participants will learn how to prepare and give an outstanding speech as well as to develop their leadership and strengthen their negotiation capacities. Furthermore, students will take a chance to debate on the topic: “The situation in Afghanistan: the threat of the terrorist groups” in frames of the final event of the project, defending interests of represented states where they will be granted with an amazing opportunity to get involved into the discussion of the global issue and find the consensus on the problem mentioned.