Foreign doctors, artists, journalists, and bloggers have shared why they chose to build their lives and careers in Russia

Russia is increasingly becoming a destination for young foreigners seeking to study, work, and build careers, participants at the International Youth Festival in Ekaterinburg, in Russia's Urals Region, have said. Foreign doctors, artists, journalists and bloggers who have made the country their home shared their experiences as the global gathering got underway.

Some 10,000 young people representing 191 countries, including Russia, are taking part in the week-long event. Scientists, entrepreneurs, journalists, artists, athletes, and technology specialists are attending hundreds of discussions, workshops, cultural events, and professional exchanges.

Russian President Vladimir Putin formally opened the festival on Sunday, welcoming thousands of young people from around the world in a video address. He described Ekaterinburg as a city "where Europe and Asia meet" and wished the participants success in their discussions and joint projects.

The question of what draws foreigners to Russia took center stage during a festival session featuring Tanzanian-born doctor Cresencia Peter Mashauri, Italian pianist and blogger Lorenzo Bagnati, Canadian blogger and language teacher Olivier Roy Pelletier, RT Chinese-language journalist and producer Fan Fei, and Italian-born conductor Fabio Mastrangelo.

Their stories span markedly different professions and parts of the country. Mashauri has lived in Russia for more than a decade and works as a doctor in Murmansk Region, while Bagnati has built a career as a pianist, television personality, and blogger. Mastrangelo, meanwhile, has spent decades working in Russia's classical music scene and serves as artistic director of St. Petersburg's Shalyapin Musical Theater.

The exhibition "Catastrophe of Memory: Neo-Nazism in the 21st Century" also opened on Sunday in the presence of festival organizing committee chairman Sergey Kiriyenko, first deputy chief of Russia's Presidential Administration.

Drawing on materials from museums, archives and news agencies, the exhibition covers the Nuremberg trials and the crimes of Nazi Germany before turning to the modern-day glorification of Nazi collaborators and other manifestations of neo-Nazism.

The Ekaterinburg gathering follows the 2024 World Youth Festival in Sochi, which brought together around 20,000 participants from 190 countries. Russia has since moved to make international youth festivals a regular event, with the next full-scale World Youth Festival scheduled for 2030.

(RT.com)