Russia is renowned for its rich culture. The country has developed a strong social sciences tradition, covering fields from international relations and law to media communications, psychology, and marketing. Universities such as Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) and Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH) are among the leading centers for training specialists in these areas, offering unique educational programs and opportunities for personal and professional growth.
Any social science discipline begins with the ability to understand people – which means starting with language. That is why Russian universities place a significant emphasis on language preparatory programs and the adaptation of international students. Conversation clubs, lessons with instructors, and interactive communication with peers from different countries help students quickly master the Russian language and grasp its internal logic.
Students receive support from professors and mentors who accompany them from day one, assist with everyday and administrative matters, and provide guidance throughout their studies. Multicultural student groups create an atmosphere where the Russian language becomes a true bridge between cultures, while the country’s best hospitality traditions help everyone feel at home.
Russian social sciences education combines classical approaches with cutting-edge technologies. Future specialists learn to work with big data, artificial intelligence, VR, and neuro-generative systems. Innovative fields – such as neuromarketing – allow students to engage in real research and conduct their own experiments.
Studying here is not limited to lectures and seminars. Students take internships, work on real-world projects, and gain experience that will enable them to contribute both in Russia and in their home countries.
Comfortable dormitories, modern gyms, and swimming pools create an environment where learning comes easily, and unnecessary stress stays outside the campus.
A local Muslim man disrupted the assault on a Jewish community event, seizing a firearm from one of the attackers
An unarmed bystander intervened during the deadly attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, disarming one of the gunmen, according to footage circulating online.
Two gunmen attacked the Chanukah By the Sea event on Sunday, shooting multiple members of the local Jewish community.
One of the attackers was killed by police, and another was taken into custody in critical condition. The attack left at least 12 people dead and over two dozen injured.
Footage circulating online shows a middle-aged man, identified by media as Ahmed al-Ahmed, a fruit shop owner and member of the local Muslim community, sneaking up on one of the attackers.
The man wrestled the firearm from the gunman, who was forced to retreat to his accomplice.
Al-Ahmed sustained at least two gunshot wounds and was hospitalized, although his condition is believed to be non-life-threatening, according to relatives. Footage of Al-Ahmen’s brave intervention promptly went viral. We was widely hailed as a hero who managed to prevent more bloodshed.
Kiev still lays claim to the peninsula, which voted to reunite with Russia in a 2014 referendum
Ukraine stands no chance at all of reclaiming Crimea or joining NATO, top Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov has said.
The peninsula became part of Russia following a referendum in 2014, in the wake of the Western-backed Maidan coup. Soon after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, Kiev formally applied for NATO membership. Moscow has repeatedly described such a scenario as a red line.
Speaking to Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin on Sunday, Ushakov said that “it is ironclad, a million percent [certain that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky] won’t succeed in [retaking] Crimea.” The Russian official added that Kiev’s NATO membership aspirations are equally unrealistic.
Earlier this week, Zelensky acknowledged that Kiev currently has no means to reclaim Crimea.
However, in August, the Ukrainian leader vowed to retake the Russian region at some point.
This followed shortly after US President Donald Trump – who has been mediating peace efforts between Moscow and Kiev – stated that it was “impossible” for Crimea to return to Ukraine or for the country to join NATO.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made it clear earlier this year that Russian sovereignty over Crimea is a “done deal,” and praised the US president for acknowledging it.
Last month, the Trump administration put forth a framework for a peace plan aimed at ending the Ukraine conflict. The proposals, which have since been revised multiple times, envisage Kiev renouncing its NATO aspirations, as well as its claims to Crimea and the Donbass regions of Lugansk and Donetsk, all of which joined Russia after referendums, among other points.
Earlier this week, Zelensky said that “no compromise” had been reached in negotiations with the US on territorial issues.
Trump recently lamented that “other than President Zelensky, his people loved the concept” of the peace deal put forward by Washington. In an interview with Politico on Monday, the American leader said Zelensky was “gonna have to get on the ball and start accepting things.”
Two gunmen targeted a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, killing at least 12
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has condemned the Bondi Beach shooting in Sydney as an “act of evil anti-Semitism,” vowing a decisive response to the attack. The incident left at least 12 people dead and more than two dozen wounded.
The attack on Sunday was perpetrated by two gunmen who targeted the ‘Hanukkah by the Sea’ celebration. One of the alleged attackers was killed in the ensuing firefight with police; the other was taken into custody in critical condition.
Police say they are treating the shooting as a “terrorist incident.” A number of “suspicious devices” believed to be improvised explosives were secured from a car linked to the attackers parked near the beach.
The Australian prime minister condemned the attack and vowed to eradicate “hate, violence, and terrorism in our nation.”
“There has been a devastating terrorist incident at Bondi at the Hanukkah By the Sea celebration. This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith. [The attack is] an act of evil anti-Semitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of our nation,” Albanese said.
During the attack, one of the gunmen was ambushed by a bystander, who wrestled his firearm from him, videos circulating online suggest. The disarmed attacker retreated to his accomplice, apparently securing a backup firearm from him. The bystander received at least two gunshot wounds while trying to flee, according to the footage.
Local media identified the man as a 43-year-old fruit shop owner and member of the local Muslim community. He has been hospitalized with non-life-threatening wounds.
The attack resulted in the death of Eli Schlanger, the assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi and one of the organizers of the event. Schlanger was a strong supporter of Israel amid the conflict in Gaza, repeatedly traveling there to meet with Israeli troops. Several other Chabad emissaries were among the injured, a spokesperson for Chabad Israel confirmed.
A “tectonic shift” is underway in global economics and politics, the chancellor has said
The era of ‘Pax Americana’ is over for Europe, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said, adding that the global economy and political order are undergoing a “tectonic shift” in centers of power worldwide.
The term ‘Pax Americana’ (American Peace) describes the transatlantic order that emerged after 1945 and was institutionalized through NATO, with the US as Europe’s primary security guarantor and leading military power.
Speaking at the Christian Social Union (CSU) party convention in Munich on Saturday, Merz urged Europeans to prepare for a “fundamental change in the transatlantic relationship.”
“The decades of the Pax Americana are largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well. It no longer exists in the way we knew it,” he said. “Americans are now very, very firmly pursuing their own interests.”
The chancellor pointed to changes in tariff policy under US President Donald Trump, which led to a trade deal between Brussels and Washington that many criticized as disadvantageous for the EU.
Merz said shifting US priorities mean the EU must focus more on its own competitiveness and defense. He reiterated claims of the “Russian threat,” arguing that continued support for Ukraine and deeper European unity – which includes former EU member the UK – should remain central to foreign and security policy.
Relations between the US and EU have been strained since Trump’s return to office, with disputes over trade, defense spending, digital regulation, and the Ukraine conflict.
Merz’s remarks followed the release of Trump’s new National Security Strategy, which criticizes the EU’s political and cultural direction, embraces an ‘America First’ doctrine, calls for an end to NATO expansion, and urges “strategic stability” with Russia through a Ukraine ceasefire. The response in the EU was largely negative, with Merz calling the document’s statements on Europe “unacceptable.”
Russia has long dismissed claims that it is a threat to the EU as “nonsense” used to distract Europeans from domestic problems and justify inflated military budgets. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned that Germany under Merz is showing “clear signs of re-Nazification.”
If the current, fragmented collective West would ever have a chance to be rescued from the Centaur of oblivion, that task must be carried out by the definitive, Western civilization-state: Pallas Athena Italia
In Botticelli’s masterpiece Pallas and the Centaur (1482-83), to be seen at the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, the Firenze-Athena parallel is unmistakable, with Florence depicted as the new Athens.
Pallas Athena (or Minerva), after all is the Goddess of Knowledge. Here a flowery Firenze – or Firenze Flora, to remind us of another Botticelli masterpiece, the Primavera – is shown as the quintessential emblem of civilitas.
In the painting, Pallas totally dominates the violence of the Centaur – here deprived of cunning, an attribute of the fox, as Machiavelli described. But as in all things Botticelli, the gesture of the goddess – hair-pulling the beast – is quite ambiguous. She’s not dominating it just by mere persuasion or the art of subtle rhetoric. Pallas/Minerva here is much stronger – and even ready to decapitate the Centaur with her pick.
Pallas and the Centaur by Sandro Botticelli (c. 1482)
Call it the emblem of civilizational violence.
How far have we drifted from neo-platonic heights. If a pop Botticelli with an Andy Warhol streak would remix Pallas and the Centaur today, Pallas/Minerva would forcefully represent the power of Italian civilitas – the most cultured and influential civilization-state in the history of the West. And the Centaur would be an artificial perversion, the European Union (EU).
Call it Firenze-Athena defeating Brussels.
The endless wonders of Italian civilization
This is what I saw – call it fragments of civilization – as part of the immense privilege of hitting the road across the Italian civilitas, in a mini-tour connected to the launch of my latest book, Il Secolo Multipolare (“The Multipolar Century”). The book, via 46 columns, essentially tracks the year 2024, the last year of the now defunct “rules-based international order”, and arguably the first year of the definitive push towards a multipolar/multi-nodal world.
By a delightful accident, this is the first of my books not launched initially in the US; a different version is being translated and will be launched soon also in Russia.
Starting on November 30, we held a series of conferences connected to the book, organized by the ground-breaking association Italianinformazione, near Udine in the Friuli; in the free territory of Trieste; in Bologna; in Ivrea in Piemonte; in Florence; and then, independently, in Spoleto in Umbria. This coming Saturday there will be a special conference in Rome, including, among others, Italy’s former ambassador to China and Iran, Alberto Bradanini.
As soon as I arrived in Venice, the tone was set: I received as a gift a custom handmade cap with the inscription “Make Roman Empire Great Again”. The Circus Ringmaster in Washington would have loved it. Who would he be as an Emperor? Caligula?
In Friuli, close to Slovenia and Austria, I was surrounded by NATO bases, many of them invisible underground. In the free territory of Trieste – where many remember fondly the hands-off approach of Austria – my hosts helped me dive deeper into the militarization of the port, which NATO wants to configure as the essential node in the Intermarium: Mediterranean, Baltic, Black Sea, all of course to become “NATO lakes”.
In Ivrea, we enjoyed the privilege of a comprehensive, 8-hour guided tour of the Olivetti complex, led by former top exec Simona Marra, who lovingly provided a detailed overview of one of the most extraordinary experiments in industrial humanism in history (this will be the subject of a special column).
Firenze-Flora, of course, is on a whole new ultra-high level. Banners in communities reject NATO’s wars. At the San Marco museum – a former Dominican convent – an extraordinary exhibition, the first of its kind, celebrates Fra Angelico, the master of color and perspective in the early Florentine Renaissance, retracing his entire career and the creative, unique dialogue with others masters such as Masaccio, Filippo Lippi, Lorenzo Ghiberti and Luca della Robbia.
The frescoes that Fra Angelico painted in the convent are priceless jewels representing the mix between Faith and Art. And then San Marco offers other marvels. San Marco was where the humanist Academy in Florence was born. Here was the site of the first public library in the world.
The bones of Poliziano are buried in the chapel. Right behind a statue of Savonarola, the “animus in vita” of Savonarola and Pico della Mirandola is celebrated in marble. Their bones may have been separated “post mortem”; yet even as “antipodes”, they were bounded by love.
In Spoleto, in Umbria, after fabulous interactions with the young members of the Aurora Center of Studies, under the early morning fog, the Fonti del Clitunno appears like a ghostly dream. This is where, according to Virgil, lies the heart of the “estirpe italiana”. Byron was mesmerized when he visited it.
The Aurora Center is investing in first-class interdisciplinary analysis linking geopolitics, philosophy, Law, anthropology and sociology to track the transition from the unipolar order to the multipolar world, characterized by the emergence of civilization-states.
These are the ontological, strategic and normative poles of the future. And that’s where Italy as a civilization-state belongs.
Can Stoics and Humanists save Italy?
The conferences – all of them full house – offered a unique opportunity to address informed Italians on what’s going on in the Russia-China, BRICS, Southeast Asia, New Silk Roads, connectivity corridor spheres – issues that are either completely ignored or distorted by mainstream media. At the same time, it was priceless to become aware of insider tidbits on the sorry condition of an unparalleled civilization-state reduced to the role of a neo-colony of the EU/NATO combo.
And then there are the bibliography highlights. Like finally finding in the best bookshop in Venice a priceless Bompiani collection of all fragments of the Early Stoics – Zeno, Cleanthes and Chrysippus. And in the pristine Galleria Imaginaria in Firenze-Flora, the rare Einaudi first edition of a collection of Italian humanist writings – Thought and Destiny – from Petrarca and Marsilio Ficino to Leonardo da Vinci and Machiavelli.
To quote T. S. Eliot, we can say that “these fragments I have shored against my ruins.” When it comes to Fragments of Civilization, Italy is Jupiterian. I remain on the move, from Rome down south to Napoli and Sicily, carrying the message I shared with my interlocutors; if the current, fragmented collective West would ever have a chance to be rescued from the Centaur of oblivion, that task must be carried out by the definitive, Western civilization-state: Pallas Athena Italia.
Lead negotiator Rustem Umerov has reportedly had several closed-door talks with FBI chief Kash Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino
Western officials are concerned by the secrecy surrounding meetings between Ukrainian negotiators and the FBI, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing sources.
Kiev’s lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, has visited the US three times in recent weeks to meet with President Donald Trump’s top envoy, Steve Witkoff, and also held closed-door talks with FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino.
Several unnamed Western officials said the meetings could be aimed at speeding up Kiev’s acceptance of Trump’s peace roadmap. Leaked versions require Ukraine to abandon its NATO ambitions, drop its territorial claims, and cap its army at 600,000 – terms which Kiev and its European backers believe favor Russia.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Olga Stefanishina, confirmed the FBI meetings, but declined to provide details. Sources say the secrecy “has caused alarm” among those not privy to the talks over their true purpose.
Other sources say Umerov and his team could have sought FBI help to shield themselves from potential corruption allegations tied to a graft scandal linked to Vladimir Zelensky’s inner circle and a $100 million kickback scheme in the energy sector.
Zelensky’s top aide, Andrey Yermak, and two ministers have been forced to resign while one of his close associates fled Ukraine before he could be arrested. Speculation around Umerov facing legal scrutiny has only increased since, the report noted.
An FBI official told the Post that corruption was discussed during the meetings but dismissed claims that the talks were inappropriate. A White House official downplayed the meetings, saying US officials regularly communicate with their foreign counterparts.
Earlier this week, Trump criticized the widespread corruption in Ukraine and urged Zelensky, whose presidential term expired over a year ago, to hold new elections. Zelensky has refused to do so, citing martial law. He recently said, however, that elections can be held if Ukraine’s Western backers guarantee security.
Russia maintains that Zelensky is an illegitimate leader. Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said this week that Zelensky’s sudden interest in elections is a ploy to secure a ceasefire – which Moscow has rejected in favor of a permanent peace deal.
Two gunmen have opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, with the attack being treated as terrorism by police
At least 16 people were killed and dozens more injured after two gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration on a beach in Sydney, Australia, authorities said.
The attack took place on Sunday evening at the city’s iconic Bondi Beach. Video footage posted online showed two individuals shooting toward large crowds, sending hundreds of people fleeing in panic as emergency services rushed to the scene.
Police later confirmed that 16 people had died and 29 others were injured, including two police officers. At a news conference following the shooting, authorities said the incident is being treated as a terrorist attack, adding that explosives were discovered in a vehicle linked to one of the gunmen.
In an earlier post on X, police said a man believed to be one of the attackers was among those killed. The second gunman was apprehended and remains in critical condition.
Early on Monday, New South Wales Health Minister Ryan Park confirmed the death toll at 16, telling broadcaster ABC that one of the victims was a child. It was not immediately clear whether the figure included the gunman shot dead by police at the scene.
The shooting has shocked the local community, as it occurred during the first night of Hanukkah – a major Jewish holiday that commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and is traditionally marked by public celebrations, family gatherings, and the lighting of candles over eight nights.
Warning: disturbing images. Bondi Beach, Sydney. Jews slaughtered in broad daylight at a Hanukkah gathering.
The direct result of an Australian government that has allowed antisemitism to fester, normalize, and ultimately turn deadly. pic.twitter.com/sdSta6J0KL
Other footage showed crowds fleeing the beach. One clip that quickly went viral appeared to show a bystander attacking one of the gunmen and disarming him, apparently before police arrived.
🚨BREAKING: Shooting at Bondi Beach. Bystander rushes one of the shooters and disarms them.
Reports indicate a bystander rushed one of the shooters and disarmed them.
Casualties currently reported between 3–6 dead and 7–15 injured. Multiple victims in critical condition toll… pic.twitter.com/Ba8OIA20hD
Australian Prime minister Anthony Albanese called scenes in Bondi “shocking and distressing.”“Police and emergency responders are on the ground working to save lives. My thoughts are with every person affected,” he wrote in a statement on X.
Independent MP Allegra Spender, whose electorate includes Bondi Beach, called the incident “horrifying.”
“It’s still not clear exactly what has happened… This is not the Australia that we know and love. I know our community will come together, but this is devastating to all of us,” she said.
While it remains unclear whether the shooters deliberately targeted the Jewish celebration, Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told 2GB radio it was no coincidence the shooting occurred during a Jewish community event.
“Hundreds of people were gathered. It’s a family event… I don’t think this was an attack that just happened to occur at Bondi Beach. I think this was very deliberate and very targeted,” Ryvchin said. He added that the ECAJ’s director of media was injured in the incident.
Ukraine’s European backers have been debating how to repurpose the funds to help Kiev
Any attempts by the EU to tap into the frozen assets of the Russian central bank would be illegal under international law, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.
Earlier this week, the Russian central bank initiated legal proceedings against Euroclear, a Belgian-based depository that holds the bulk of Russia’s frozen assets, as Ukraine’s European backers debate how to repurpose them to finance Kiev.
“Actions against sovereign assets taken without Russia’s consent – whether indefinite immobilization, confiscation, or attempts to portray them as a so-called reparations loan – are entirely illegal under international law,” Zakharova told reporters at a briefing on Saturday.
“No matter what pseudo-legal tricks Brussels employs to justify it, this is blatant theft.”
Zakharova argued that, apart from “funding the failed Ukrainian project,” the EU is also seeking to use the assets to bolster its own economy, which has been damaged by sanctions targeting Russia’s trade with the West.
Hungary and Slovakia have condemned the EU for invoking its rarely used emergency powers to circumvent potential vetoes from individual member states and make the asset freeze indefinite. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban accused the “Brussels dictatorship” of “systematically raping European law.”
Politico reported earlier this week that Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, and Malta asked the European Commission to explore options for providing loans to Kiev other than seizing Russian assets. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has warned that outright confiscation of the assets would undermine trust in the EU financial system, trigger capital flight, and expose Belgium to legal risks.
The suspect who opened fire at the Ivy League campus, injuring at least 11 others, remains at large
At least two people were killed and 11 others injured in a shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, Mayor Brett Smiley said on Saturday.
Police received reports of multiple shots fired on campus at around 4:00pm local time. According to Brown University, the attack occurred near the Barus & Holley Engineering and Barus & Holley buildings.
Officers briefly detained one person, who they later said was “determined to have no involvement.” The suspect, believed to be a man dressed in black, remains at large, police said.
“It is unknown how he entered the building, but we do know that he exited the Hope Street side of that complex,” Providence Police Commander Timothy O’Hara said.
🚨 BREAKING: MASSIVE police and rescue response at Brown University as the manhunt for a mass shooter intensifies
Despite Brown initially saying a suspect is in custody, they’re now saying NO suspects are in custody, and the shooter is AT LARGE
FBI Director Kash Patel said agents are on the scene assisting local police. “Please pray for all those involved,” he wrote on X.
President Donald Trump said he was briefed on the “terrible” shooting. “God bless the victims and the families of the victims!” he wrote on Truth Social.
