— Alina, it was you who spearheaded the Youth Year. When was this idea born and what did you see behind the name? How difficult was it to materialize the initiative?
What did I see behind the Youth Year’s name? I saw that it could bring a real opportunity to pay more attention to our young people and their development. To turn to young people and ask them how they see their future, what they want, what they expect from tomorrow, what kind of help they need. I saw it as an opportunity to develop a more comprehensive approach to implementation of many existing youth projects and cover as many localities and regions as possible. A possibility to initiate or resume youth projects that had already been conceived but not embodied yet. I think the Youth Year is a great chance to focus on our future, because today’s children and youngsters are the future of the nation.
As for the second question, I’m a former athlete and I’ve learned not to fear difficulties. I always set myself a goal and go for it. I think when you have an idea it’s very important not to think about problems that may occur during its implementation but to make the first step. It’s half of the success. If we talk about the Youth Year, there is a certain procedure for such projects to go ahead. They need to be approved by legal experts and supported by the parliamentary party, the respective Duma committee, the Duma Council, and the entire house. I was very pleased when my initiative was approved by an absolute majority of the Duma at a plenary meeting in June 2008. That was another evidence that the society is concerned with how young people develop and believes that the Youth Year can boost an active growth and progress of youth projects in the future. Following the parliamentary approval, in September 2008 President Dmitriy Medvedev signed a decree announcing 2009 the Youth Year.
— How are you personally involved in implementation of the Youth Year projects? Do you supervise any of them?
I receive many messages on my website concerning the Youth Year. Some people ask me to provide information on the projects’ progress or to comment on budget spending, others complain about shortcomings and problems that occur during implementation of the projects, including in remote areas. I see that many people think I am responsible for the Youth Year because I was the originator. But I am not. I’d like to point out that the Youth Year projects are the responsibility of the Ministry of Sports, Tourism and Youth Policy. I only supervise my own two projects, which the Organising Committee included in the year’s programme at its first meeting. I think they deal with very important things. The first one aims to support physically disabled young people. The other is a series of educational workshops for young journalists from all over Russia.
