From the 20th to 24th of March the National Model United Nations 2016 in New York welcomed the MUNRFE Team, represented this year the Independent States of Samoa, in particular Ms. Ksenia Shevtsova (GA 1), the Head Delegate, Ms. Ekaterina Tretiakova (GA 2) and Ms. Alexandra Gritsenko (Habitat III).

Despite all the challenges MUNRFE faced this time, the delegation managed to receive one team and two individual awards: the delegation was recognized as the Honorable Mention Delegation, while Ms. Ksenia Shavtsova and Ms. Alexandra Gritsenko got the Outstanding Position Paper awards.

That it is the third time in a row to receive the team awards and second time in a row to get the individual awards. All this achievements would be real without hard training week of preparation, which was kindly attended by the Second Secretary of the Representation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia in Vladivostok Mr. Evgeniy Sergeevich Volosastov. MUNRFE is thankful to Mr. Volosastov for his fruitful lecture and looks forward to further cooperation.

The first success of this delegation was a visit to the World Bank Office in Russia (Moscow). In frames of our already long-term relations, the World Bank welcomed MUNRFE delegation for the third time (in 2014 and 2015 delegations were accepted in the WB Headquarters in Washington, D.C.). The seminar for the delegation was conducted by Ms. Larisa Fugol, the officer of the WB representation in Russia, who comprehensively presented the World Bank activities and Russian foreign financial and economic policies. MUNRFE is striving for improvement of our bilateral connections with the World Bank and is looking forward to new means of collaboration.

The Secretariat of the Far Eastern Model UN 2016 has conducted the Grant Competition for non-Vladivostok delegates, who have officially registered to participate in the Conference, made a registration fee payment, and received a confirmation letter with an assigned country from the Secretariat. After a careful checking, a delegate, who submitted an essay on the agenda item of his/her committee, accompanied by a motivation letter, according to the requirements was selected as a winner. Please, join us in congratulations to Ms. Margarita Vashchenko (Blagoveshchensk), who showed the best professionalism and knowledge in writing of the required documents!

The upcoming Far Eastern Model United Nations 2016 would be a reality without an extensive support of the hosting university, one of the largest and prestigious universities of the Russian Far East – the Far Eastern Federal University.

Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) is the top rated, the largest, and the oldest university of Eastern Russia, established in 1899 by a special order of the Emperor Nikolai II. According to the ratings of the Russian Ministry of Education, FEFU is one of the top five Russian universities. FEFU is the only university of Eastern Russia accredited as a scientific university by the Russian Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology.

The Russian President Vladimir V. Putin has outlined that FEFU is one of the supreme dominants of the Russian Far East and an intellectual center which provides the training of high-qualified personnel not only for traditional branches of industry but also for the modern economy. Indeed, the Far East of Russia is now implementing large-scale unprecedented economic and social projects. New enterprises, transportation systems are launched; social and cultural, sport, and strategic facilities are built. In the view of these unique circumstances the Far Eastern Federal University follows the mission to train high-level professionals to provide education in accordance with world standards.

On March 21, the Round Table in the Far Eastern Federal University was launched under the leadership of Ms. Anna Timokhina and Ms. Alexandra Kosyreva. The agenda stated as "European Migrant Crisis" was established. In this regard, the participants had an opportunity to attend two lectures on March 21 and March 30 on the topic introduced by the Professor and Associate Professor of the FEFU School of Regional and International Studies - Mr. Anatoliy M. Kuznetcov and Mr. Leonid E. Kozlov respectively. On March 23, the former president of Vladivostok MUNRFE Club Mr. Alexander Yugai guided the participants in extension of their knowledge in public-speaking. He shared strategies of a good public performance, along with practice of gained knowledge. Later, MUNRFE Director-General, Mr. Vitaly Savenkov, presented the third lecture on international relations and the United Nations system. The last lecture, delivered by MUNRFE Deputy Executive Director, Ms. Victoria Yavorskaya, was aimed at explaining the procedural rules of MUN debates.

On April 2, the final event, Round Table, was moderated by Ms. Victoria Yavorskaya and Ms. Alexandra Gritsenko, where participants actively discussed the situation on migration crisis in Europe. An outcome document was a resolution, which was adopted by a unanimous vote. As a result, Ms. Yana Krasnitskaya became an Outstanding delegate and received a free participation in the Far Eastern MUN 2016. In addition, VSUES student Ms. Natalya Krashennikova won a special prize from MUNRFE – a cup with the symbolic of the organization, as far as she was chosen an author of the best essay.

On March 1, 2016 Vladivostok MUNRFE Club launched a Round Table project in the Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service (VSUES) in Russian language under the leadership of Mr. Bogdan Naumov and Mr. Alexey Stanonis. The project was dedicated to the agenda item: «Solving problems of cooperation during implementation of counter-terrorism policy in the Middle East», and consisted of a series of lectures and the Round Table discussion itself in the form of Model UN debate session. MUNRFE gladly appreciated the invaluable support provided by VSUES Institute of Law, in particular the Chair of Theory and History of the Russian and Foreign Law.

The first two weeks of the project included 4 lectures delivered by Associate Professor at the VSUES Department of International Business and Finance, Member of the Russian Political Science Association, Dr. Andrei B. Volynchuk, Ph.D. The first lecture «Historical aspects of formation of the Middle East region» brought together more than 30 Students of VSUES and high schools of Vladivostok.

On February, 24 the Advanced Leadership School 2016 in Vladivostok successfully started. The ALS-Vladivostok 2016 was aimed at deepening and refreshing knowledge about project management among Vladivostok MUNRFE Club members. During the week participants got a lot of inestimable information about project planning, event promotion and crisis resolution, presented by one of the most experienced members of MUNRFE and special guests. All the necessary lectures for those who want to realize their ideas into profitable result were conducted in the Far Eastern Federal University under the leadership of Ms. Anastasia Popova.