Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Government of the Russian Federation – Government of the Russian Federation –
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The results of the all-Russian competition to identify volunteer recruitment and training centers for the International Youth Festival (IYF-2026), which will be held in September in Yekaterinburg, have been announced. This is the largest international youth event of 2026. The festival is being held under the national project "Youth and Children."
"This year, at the direction of President Vladimir Putin, the International Youth Festival will be held as part of the 'Youth and Children' national project. Volunteers will assist 10,000 participants throughout the festival in Yekaterinburg. For this purpose, 28 of the most successful volunteer recruitment and training centers in 23 regions were selected through a competitive process from 60 applications from 39 Russian regions, including Donbas and Novorossiya. They will set a high bar for the quality of volunteer selection and training and ensure a high-quality international event," noted Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko.
The Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that Russia has unique experience in volunteerism. Since 2025, the federal project "We Are Together" under the national project "Youth and Children" has been a key instrument for developing volunteerism. Thanks to this project, specialized infrastructure is being created in the country, educational programs for volunteers are being implemented, and charitable initiatives are receiving additional support. More than 9.4 million volunteers are already registered on the digital platform "Dobro.RF," more than 1,000 "Dobro.Centers" have been established across the country, and the number of events supported by volunteers has reached almost 1.3 million.
The World Youth Festival Directorate, together with Dobro.RF, held a competition to identify volunteer recruitment and training centers for the 2026 World Youth Festival on January 22. Volunteer and non-profit organizations, resource centers, universities, colleges, NGOs, and government agencies with proven experience in recruiting, selecting, and training volunteers, serving as infrastructure operators for volunteerism and youth programs, were eligible to participate.
Based on the results of the competition, volunteer recruitment and training centers for the 2026 IMF will operate in the Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Yaroslavl, Volgograd, Rostov, Omsk, Tomsk, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Zaporizhzhya, and Nizhny Novgorod regions; Primorsky, Altai, Krasnoyarsk, Krasnodar, Perm, Stavropol, and Khabarovsk territories; the Donetsk People's Republic; the Republics of Bashkortostan and Tatarstan; St. Petersburg; and Moscow.
"We received 9,000 applications from volunteers to join the International Youth Festival volunteer corps. These volunteers will become co-organizers of one of the largest international youth events: they will assist with accommodation, logistics, accreditation, participant navigation, program organization, protocol support for guests, media relations, and much more. The volunteers' hospitality and respectful attitude toward participants and guests of our country inspire them to fall in love with Russia's culture, history, and traditions. It is important to us that every guest of our country sees the real Russia, where we are open to everyone and ready to create a multipolar world together," emphasized Grigory Gurov, head of Rosmolodezh.
At the 2026 IFM site, volunteers will be deployed across 17 functional areas, covering all key aspects of organizing and hosting the event.
"Russia has repeatedly welcomed talented young people from all over the world, and hosting large-scale festivals is becoming a great tradition. Volunteers will be tasked with a wide range of tasks: from accreditation and logistics to simultaneous interpretation and escorting official delegations. They will assist medical personnel, create a comfortable environment for participants with limited mobility, and even shape the information agenda, interacting with the media and creating content for social media. The Dobro.RF ecosystem will also be a partner in this valuable program. As part of regional expeditions, volunteers will show foreigners the beauty of Russia: from the Ural Mountains to the vast expanses of the Far East," said Artyom Metelev, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Youth Policy and Head of Dobro.RF.
Registration for the 2026 MFM volunteer corps will be open on the Dobro.RF platform until March 31: http://dobro.ru/event/11434992
The International Youth Festival will be held from September 11 to 17, 2026, in Yekaterinburg, the capital of the Urals. The event, held by decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin, will become a key platform for dialogue among young people from around the world who are ready to take responsibility for the future of the planet.
The festival is part of the World Youth Festival 2024 (WYF-2024) family of events, which took place in the Sirius Federal District and brought together 20,000 participants from 190 countries. To preserve and develop this legacy, in accordance with the instructions of Russian President Vladimir Putin, international youth events are held in Russia annually. For example, in September 2025, Nizhny Novgorod hosted the World Youth Festival gathering, attended by 2,000 representatives from 120 countries.
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