Category: Translation

Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

The RAGU project, presented by the development team of the Applied Digital Technologies Laboratory International Scientific and Educational Mathematical Center of NSU, won the "Innovations in Artificial Intelligence" category of the "Code Without Borders" competition, held as part of the "Code Without Borders" grant program by GitVerse, Cloud.ru, and Habr. Over 200 applications from across the country were submitted, but the project by NSU researchers was recognized as the best. Its concept forms the basis of the "Menon" chatbot, which they are developing for NSU applicants. The RAGU software library was presented at the Datafest conference. A research paper on the library and its applications is currently planned. Ivan Bondarenko, a research fellow at the Laboratory of Applied Digital Technologies at the International Scientific and Educational Mathematical Center at NSU, spoke about the grant program and how his RAGU project became a winner.

RAGU (Retrieval-Augmented Graph Utility) is an open-source software library designed to integrate knowledge graphs with large-scale language models (LLMs), improving the accuracy and reliability of responses and reducing the risk of hallucinations. Its architecture is similar to the GraphRAG approach, but is based on the principle of "stepwise" knowledge graph construction: a multi-step process is used, with a pre-trained smaller model used for the first step, reducing resource requirements.

Ivan Bondarenko explained that the key to success lies in combining knowledge graphs and modern language models, which improves accuracy and reduces the risk of hallucinations in responses.

"The initial idea behind RAGU was to open access to tools for the efficient, synthesized operation of knowledge graphs and LLMs. Our open-source software library enables the integration of large language models with knowledge graphs to improve the accuracy, reliability, and reduce the hallucination of responses from large language models to user questions. We used a multi-step approach—we specifically retrained a generative neural network to be an effective tool for constructing a knowledge graph, and to do so in multiple steps rather than in a single step. This approach reduces hardware requirements and accelerates the process. With the original approach, efficient knowledge graph construction often required enormous language models (up to ~32 billion parameters). Our approach reduced the size to approximately 600 million parameters through retraining and a multi-step architecture, while maintaining or even improving the quality compared to traditional solutions within the GraphRAG methodology," the researcher explained.

The project attracted participants from various cities and universities across Russia, highlighting its nationwide reach. In addition to NSU students and staff, it included representatives from Lomonosov Moscow State University, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, MISIS University of Science and Technology, Far Eastern Federal University, and ITMO University: Ivan Bondarenko (NSU), Mikhail Komarov (NSU), Yana Dementyeva (NSU), Roman Shuvalov (NSU), Nikita Kukuzei (MSU), Ilya Myznikov (IKBFU), Alexander Kuleshevsky (MISIS), Stas Shtuka (FEFU), Matvey Soloviev (ITMO), and Fyodor Tikunov (NSU).

"We didn't come up with the concept itself. We borrowed the idea for the GraphRAG architecture from a Microsoft paper published a year ago. It turned out to be a good one, but we noticed a number of shortcomings: a very lengthy knowledge graph construction procedure and non-deterministic results. We were able to speed up the process and improve reliability using our approach. The architecture includes multi-step tuning and retraining of a smaller model, which allows us to reduce the model size and hardware requirements. The knowledge graph is built on nodes—named entities—and arcs—the relationships between them. This allows us to create a human-readable and reliable world graph, separated from the "black box" of a neural network," explained Ivan Bondarenko.

RAGU is already the basis for accelerating processes and demonstrates speed advantages over larger models. Ivan Bondarenko plans to write a scientific paper about the library and its application. This paper will be further developed and ported to the Menona engine within NSU.

Material prepared by: Elena Panfilo, NSU press service

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source. It represents an accurate account of the source's assertions and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

On December 12, 2025, the 19th International Academic Conference on "Current Issues of Parliamentarism: History and Modernity" was held at the Tauride Palace. The conference brought together a wide range of scholars, researchers, experts, and participants in legislative and parliamentary activities from many Russian cities—Moscow, St. Petersburg, Perm, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Yaroslavl—as well as from Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Azerbaijan. Novosibirsk State University was represented at the event by Igor Kravets, Doctor of Law, Professor, Head of the Department of Constitutional and Municipal Law, and Chief Research Fellow. Institute of Philosophy and Law of NSU.

The plenary session took place in the Duma hall, where the State Duma of the Russian Empire previously met at the beginning of the 20th century.

Traditionally, special attention at the Tauride Readings is given to six research and information blocks:

The article covers the history of the State Duma of the Russian Empire and its relationship with the State Council at the beginning of the 20th century; the electoral process in the regions of the Russian Empire during the elections of deputies to the State Duma; the work and role of the Congresses of People's Deputies of the USSR and the RSFSR at the end of the 20th century, when a two-tier legislative system was in effect, the USSR collapsed, and a new system of state and legal interaction in the post-Soviet space was being established; the experience of modern parliamentarism in the CIS and BRICS countries, including the procedure for organizing and holding elections, the digitalization of parliamentary activity, the interaction of parliaments with governments and civil society, and the development of international inter-parliamentary structures; the formation of parliamentary biographies based on the personal and professional experience of individual State Duma deputies, the procedure for interaction with government institutions and civil society; the role of archival, memoir, and journalistic sources in covering the parliamentary history of Russia.

Igor Kravets presented a paper on "Parliamentary Digital Platforms and the Future of Latin American Constitutionalism," exploring the prospects for using and developing digital platforms for interaction between parliamentarians, citizens, experts, and civil society institutions in legislative activities. The paper presented the results of two years of work that Igor Kravets has been leading as the project manager for a project supported by the Russian Science Foundation (RSF).No. 23-28-00627), – “Communicative constitutionalism and constitutional mobilization: the problem of deliberative participation in the public and information space and the transformation of the public authority system (concepts, norms and institutional mechanisms).

In preparing this report, we used original sources (translations from English, Spanish, and Portuguese) and materials collected during the monitoring of the websites of parliaments of individual Latin American states (Brazil, Chile), as well as the scientific works of Russian and Latin American authors.

"The study of new Latin American parliamentarism and constitutionalism is relevant in the context of comparison with the experiences of other BRICS countries, including Russia, China, South Africa, and Brazil. Expanding forms of citizen participation in parliamentary activities and constitutional amendments is not only an innovation in the subregion (Latin America), increasing the engagement and awareness of citizens and experts, but also an international trend in light of digitalization and constitutional and parliamentary inclusion," explained Igor Kravets.

Following his presentation, Igor Kravets proposed measures to improve the effectiveness of institutional and communications interactions between public authorities and citizens, on the one hand, and parliamentary institutions (federal, regional, and municipal levels) and the subjects of various legislative initiatives, on the other. These measures include:

Create a regulatory framework and technological solutions in the field of digital platforms (including crowdsourcing platforms) for interaction between citizens and deputies (at various levels) in the area of discussion and adoption of various regulatory legal acts through interactive discussion and voting.

Create e-citizenship and e-democracy platforms in representative institutions (at the federal, regional, and municipal levels) for the participation of citizens and lawmakers in the legislative and regulatory process in order to increase social responsibility, solidarity, and accountability of representative institutions in the area of legislative activity.

On the website of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly (in particular, the control committee), create an interactive portal for discussion with the participation of citizens and other interested parties (from the professional community, civil society institutions) of the results of the implementation of parliamentary control and parliamentary investigations.

Expand information accessibility for citizens and civil society institutions regarding the results of work on parliamentary and deputy inquiries (currently, such inquiries are posted on the website, but the results of their implementation are not available for review or participation in discussions).

"The Tauride Readings allow us to share the research findings of many Russian and international scholars, as well as the experiences of practicing deputies and parliamentary institutions. Within the walls of the Tauride Palace, the history and contemporary spirit of parliamentary institutions are preserved. Each visit offers a new perspective, revealing new facets of parliamentary life in Russia and abroad through the perspectives of those who have created and continue to create the history of parliamentarism in both domestic and comparative dimensions," Igor Kravets emphasized.

Next year, the 20th anniversary conference "Tavrichesky Readings" will take place, in which Igor Kravets also plans to participate.

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source. It represents an accurate account of the source's assertions and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.