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Does the spread of Russian education and the Russian language encourage integration in post-Soviet space?
Viktor Sadovnichy, Principal of Lomonosov Moscow State University
That is a deep and important question, because we will always understand each other,
as we speak a common language.
It is our tie.
And the only ties we have are our mentality and language.
I think the problem is big and many-faceted.
It has recently been discussed by the government, a session was conducted by Olga Golodets.
We contribute to it through our branches.
And we succeed in this.
Today 3000 students are studying in our branches.
They are the future elite; they will get degrees from Moscow University;
they are studying the Russian language.
And I hope they love our country, because we teach them in such a way, we give them everything,
from the point of view of our educational capacities.
This is very important.
And I believe we underestimate the work of our branches as “soft power.”
The branches are not-for-profit.
You know some universities establish branches to get profit, but we have no commercial component.
Probably a tiny commercial component is present with the assent of local authorities,
but in general these branches are not for earning money.
I think it is a great achievement.
3 thousand students study and there will be more.
Soon we will open two more branches – in Yerevan and Kyrgyzstan.
We need this today. It is the right mission for Moscow University.
Will the Soviet scheme of welcoming students from national republics be revived?
Recently the History Department has welcomed its first student from Kyrgyzstan in several years.
We have three countries from which students can enter our university – Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Unfortunately, school education and qualifications
are insufficient in these countries for entering our university on general terms.
Of course there are individual people who studied well at a Russian school,
speak Russian fluently and have vast knowledge.
There is another way – national quotas, but they are too small.
I think they should be increased, at the same time, they should be sponsored by the state.
The question needs international discussion.
Branches are a good instrument for spreading.
What more do you need if you have a degree from MSU?
In 1991-1992 we declared that we would accept citizens of any country,
even though it was aimed at citizens of the former Soviet republics.
The interest was huge.
It was a great step, and young people entered our university
and didn’t notice that the Soviet Union had collapsed.
But later the Auditing Chamber corrected me that they were foreigners and couldn’t be accepted any more.
And the inflow from these countries narrowed down.
But the main thing is the Russian language and the level of training to enter Moscow University independently.
I think that such an opportunity should be extended for countries.
For instance, there are many young people in Ukraine who want to study at MSU,
they are well-trained and speak Russian.
But formally they are foreigners.