A briefing presentation of the RUSSIA.STUDY program for free education of foreign citizens' at Russian universities was held at the Russian Cultural and Information Center in Sofia on the 25^th of January.

For the academic year 2018/2019, nearly 300 Bulgarian youths will be admitted for their studies at the expense of the federal budget of the Russian Federation. Candidates for places will have the opportunity to choose different majors in more than 500 Russian universities in 60 cities. The deadline for submission of documents expires at the end of March.

The program was presented by people from the Embassy of the Russian Federation and the representation of Rossotrudnichestvo, as well as students who are currently studying or recently graduating. The questions by journalists and the interested young people were answered by the advisor at the Embassy of the Russian Federation and by the representative of the Ministry of Education Robert Shestakov, the Head of the RossotrudnichestvoRepresentation in Bulgaria and the Director of the ROCS Pavel Zhuravlyov, the heads of the "Russian Language and Education" and the "Science and education" at the RICC Kiril Voronkov and Konstantin Peev.

The interest of the participants was focused both on the general terms and conditions regarding the participation in the program: what documents are needed, what specialties are the most sought after, under what conditions a hostel is provided and some specific elements of the Russian life: how much the food costs, urban transport, how to talk about creative specialties... All questions were given comprehensive answers and the stories of the young people who have studied or are currently studying under the program confirmed that it works and that the free of charge Russian education for Bulgarians "is a reality".

Details of the program can be found on the site of the Russian Cultural and Information Center.

The material was provided by the press service of the RICC in Sofia.
On the photo from left to right: KostaPeev, Head of "Science and Education" at the RICC; Pavel Zhuravlyov, Head of the Rossotrudnichestvo Office in Bulgaria and Director of RICC; Robert Shestakov, Advisor to the Embassy of the Russian Federation and Representative of the Ministry of Education and Science; Kiril Voronkov, Head of the Russian Language and Education Department; and Stefan Shterev, translator