РОССИЙСКО-АРМЯНСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ

23 Oct
2026

RAU Hosts Roundtable and Student Brain-Ring to Mark the 35th Anniversary of the CIS

The programme brought together leading experts for an academic discussion and students for an intellectual competition.

A series of academic and educational events dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) took place at the Russian-Armenian University on October 23. The programme brought together leading experts for an academic discussion and students for an intellectual competition.

The central event of the academic programme was an expert roundtable entitled “The Commonwealth of Independent States in a Multipolar World: 35 Years of Integration, Challenges and Prospects.”

Beniamin Mailyan, Head of the Department of World History and Foreign Regional Studies at RAU, delivered the keynote address. He noted that over the past three and a half decades, the Commonwealth had evolved from an instrument for preventing chaos into an established platform for multilateral dialogue. The expert emphasized that, in the current context of 2026, a key priority for the academic community and CIS member states is to develop technological and humanitarian cooperation in response to the challenges of a multipolar world.

The programme continued with a student brain-ring entitled “Contours of Integration: The CIS in Questions and Answers,” where teams of political science students and future specialists in foreign regional studies competed in an intellectual contest. Participants demonstrated their knowledge of the history of the CIS’s establishment, its institutional structure, and its key documents.

Ivan Aleksandrovsky, Adviser to the Rector’s Office and moderator of the competition, highlighted the importance of gamification in education.

“Engaging young people in the study of fundamental historical and political processes in an engaging and effective way is both possible and necessary through modern interactive formats. Gamification of academic knowledge helps bridge the gap between theory and practice, enabling students not merely to memorize dates but to immerse themselves deeply and enthusiastically in the issues surrounding Eurasian integration,” he said.

The event was organized by RAU’s Institute of International Relations and Social and Political Sciences.