From 26 to 29 May 2026, Novosibirsk will become the focal point for young leaders, experts, and researchers from across Eurasia. The city will host the International Youth Forum 'Growth Points: Siberia in the Concept of Greater Eurasia' and an International Expert Session in a scenario-analysis format, dedicated to Siberia’s role in the Greater Eurasian Partnership. These are the key events of the Growth Points (‘Tochki Rosta') — an international public diplomacy project, organised by the ANO Centre for Advanced Research and Education Projects of the Eurasian Space 'Evrazimut', with the support of the Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund (named after Alexander Gorchakov, Russia’s 19th-century foreign minister and one of the founders of modern diplomacy), the ANO Institute of Russians Abroad, the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (REU), the Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management (NSUEM), and the ANO Siberian Society for International Studies.
What lies behind these events? Why is it Siberia — and why now — that is becoming a space where the Eurasian continent searches for new ideas and new meanings?
While the main geopolitical battles are fought over the 'Global South', and the Atlantic model of world order is showing signs of crisis, a new centre of gravity is emerging on the Eurasian map. This is not about redividing old ports or pipelines. It is about a search for meaning. And this search — paradoxically — leads us not to the multi-million megacities of China or India, but to the north of Russia, to Siberia.
Siberia has historically served as a crossroads of civilisations, making it an ideal platform for discussing humanitarian cooperation (languages, education, tourism), ecological initiatives (climate projects, biodiversity conservation), and inter-regional partnership (engagement with China, India, and Central Asia). For a long time, Siberia was perceived primarily as a 'resource treasury' — an important but peripheral part of the Eurasian space. Today, that narrative is changing. In the new geopolitical reality, as Greater Eurasia takes shape as a macro-region of cooperation, Siberia finds itself at the very heart of the continent and gains the chance to become an experimental ground for the future.
Within the Growth Points project, young people from Russia and other EAEU (Eurasian Economic Union), SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation), and BRICS states will work with expert support to identify the 'growth points' of the Eurasian space and Siberia’s place in the Greater Eurasia concept — a task of particular relevance in the context of the profound transformation of international relations and the growing role of Russian regions in engagement with friendly countries. The involvement of representatives from several Siberian regions, neighbouring countries, and Greater Eurasian Partnership member states opens up new inter-regional cooperation opportunities, including through the potential of communities of international students and graduates of Siberian universities.
Which logistical, economic, and humanitarian projects are capable of reshaping connections across the continent? Participants will not merely discuss these topics — they will be expected to propose concrete solutions. The forum programme is structured around five thematic clusters, each an independent platform for generating ideas:
1. Political Science and International Relations
Participants in this track will analyse the transformation of the world order, the realignment of international alliances, and Siberia’s place in the global agenda. What political risks and development scenarios are most probable for the Eurasian space?
Sergei Yuryevich Panteleev, Director of the ANO Institute of Russians Abroad (Institut Russkogo Zarubezhya — the non-governmental organisation that develops ties with Russian-speaking communities abroad); Head of the Growth Points project
The main political risk for Eurasia today is being drawn into a systemic process of destabilisation emanating from centres of global neocolonialism that are losing their former power but are not ready to acknowledge it. For them, the Eurasian space is prey. For us, Greater Eurasia is our home — and we want our home to be orderly, peaceful, and prosperous. Structures such as the EAEU (Eurasian Economic Union), the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organisation), and the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) exist precisely to ensure peace, security, economic development, and inter-state cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual benefit. The very concept of Greater Eurasia is about this — about a new, more equitable principle of international relations in the age of a polycentric world. Siberia, in this context, is simultaneously the guardian of our great continental tradition and a unique platform for a breakthrough into the future.
2. Economics and Inter-Regional Partnership
Logistical corridors linking the Northern Sea Route with Siberian railways, the energy transition, food security, and the investment potential of the regions — these subjects will form the basis for expert discussions.
Evgenia Viktorovna Shavina, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (REU); Head of Educational Projects at the ANO Evrazimut Centre; Chief Organiser and Expert of the Growth Points project in Novosibirsk
Contemporary geoeconomic dynamics are characterised by a sustained shift in centres of economic activity toward the Asia-Pacific region and the parallel emergence of continental integration frameworks. In this context, the concept of Greater Eurasia, developed by S. A. Karaganov (Sergei Karaganov — one of Russia’s most influential foreign policy thinkers, who has been developing the Greater Eurasia concept since the 2010s) and his colleagues, acquires not only theoretical but also practical significance. The concept cannot be realised without a fundamental reassessment of the Siberian macro-region's place within it. As L. A. Bezrukov rightly notes, 'the continental-oceanic dichotomy in global development confronts Russia with the task of making effective use of its Eurasian position, and Siberia is the key linking element here.' Siberia’s role in shaping the Eurasian Economic Space has moved well beyond simple transit. The formation of a backbone network of transport and logistics hubs, together with the synchronisation of rail links and river ports on the Ob and the Yenisei, is laying the foundations for a new geoeconomic reality. Siberia is transforming from a territory situated between Europe and Asia into an independent actor that determines the dynamics and resilience of the entire Greater Eurasia construct. Realising this potential requires consolidated efforts of the government, businesses, and science, as well as attention to the contemporary geopolitical challenges that are transforming global logistics. I hope that, together with the experts and young participants of the project in Novosibirsk, we will succeed in identifying the growth points of Greater Eurasia, drawing on the considerable potential of the Siberian region.
3. History and Historical-Economic Heritage
The exploration of Siberia, the ideas of oblastnichestvo (the nineteenth-century Siberian regionalist movement that advocated Siberia’s distinct identity and greater autonomy), and the historical preconditions for Eurasian integration — the past offers keys to understanding future projects. Participants will seek out the lessons that history offers today’s architects of Greater Eurasia.
Fyodor Alexandrovich Gaida, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor at Lomonosov Moscow State University (MGU); Expert of the Growth Points project
Siberia makes up the greater part of Northern Eurasia’s territory — the largest single continuous landmass on Earth. From ancient times, a Eurasian steppe corridor has formed here, linking every part of Eurasia from China to Europe. As early as the Stone Age this space saw intensive exchange of goods, technologies, and ideas. It was here that the nomadic world first came into being — a world whose heir was Russia, which went on to build new trade routes and then powerful transport arteries. Mastering this vast space made our country a power of planetary stature.
4. Public Diplomacy and International Communication
How does one build a dialogue beyond formal diplomacy? How does one work with partners in conditions of political divergence and informational asymmetry? This track focuses on soft power and informal instruments of influence.
Mikhail Dmitrievich Konov, Specialist at the Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Support Fund
The Gorchakov Fund supports projects aimed at strengthening Russia’s positive image and building constructive international dialogue. One of the Fund’s key areas of activity is work in the Eurasian space. In this context, the Fund promotes expert dialogue and the exchange of experience, and initiates and supports research and educational projects in a range of fields — from environmental management to the preservation of historical memory. The Growth Points project, dedicated in 2026 to Siberia’s role in the Greater Eurasia concept, fully corresponds to the Fund’s objectives — which is precisely why it was supported through the grant competition.
5. Journalism and New Media
Shaping the image of Siberia and Eurasia in the information space is both a challenge and an opportunity. How does one tell the story of a continent in a way that will be heard? How does one overcome stereotypes and create new meaning?
Ekaterina Pavlovna Shekhovtsova, Lecturer at the State Academic University of the Humanities (GAUGN); Graduate of the Growth Points project
Siberia and Eurasia today are not the periphery of global development — they are a space where the heart of cultures and traditions beats, where new routes of economic and humanitarian exchange are being formed. In the information field, the image of the region is still often constructed through outdated stereotypes: 'a territory of cold', 'a raw-material appendage', 'a distant and hard-to-reach corner'. Such perceptions simplify and impoverish reality. Yet Siberia is a space of cultural diversity and the historical experience of peoples coexisting, while Eurasia is a distinct model of civilisational dialogue — one that combines the traditions of East and West, local identity and global openness.
The contemporary humanitarian agenda calls for new meanings and new forms of communication. To be heard, it is not enough to talk about Siberia solely in the language of statistics, infrastructure projects, or natural resources. What matters are people’s stories, cultural codes, intellectual and creative initiatives. Building a positive image of Eurasia is possible through humanitarian cooperation, the development of digital platforms, science diplomacy, and cultural communication. That is both a challenge and an opportunity: to overcome the inertia of perception and to show the continent as a space of the future, not only of memory. The new Eurasian identity is built not on the opposition to the world, but on the capacity to offer one’s own model of interaction — multipolar, culturally complex, and open to cooperation.
The forum’s organisers are not aiming for passive listening to presentations — they are counting on active participation of young people from Greater Eurasia in a 'dialogue of equals' format across all forum events. This is why participation required a competitive selection process: each candidate submitted a video introduction presenting their research interests in the context of Eurasian integration and Siberia’s role in the Greater Eurasian Partnership. This guarantees a high level of discussion and the full engagement of every participant.
The forum programme includes thematic discussions, analytical group sessions, youth debates, and project presentations. The expert session in scenario-analysis format will allow for real development scenarios to be modelled and practical recommendations to be proposed.
The forum will serve as a platform for strengthening Russia’s positive image through cultural, academic, and business contacts; for promoting the Siberian brand (ecology, science, ethnocultural heritage); for involving young leaders, experts, and NGO representatives in international dialogue; and for drawing into the project international students studying at Siberian universities who represent Greater Eurasian countries (China, India, Vietnam, Mongolia, and others).
Why Does This Matter Now?
Greater Eurasia is today in a stage of active formation. The continent is searching for new formats of cooperation that do not copy old models but arise from the specific character of the region. In this search, Siberia can play a special role — not as an observer but as an active participant proposing its own solutions.
The Growth Points Youth Forum is not simply an event. It is a mechanism for bringing a new generation of experts into a real-world agenda. It is a platform where projects are born that, in several years' time, may change the transport map of Eurasia, build new humanitarian bridges, or propose unconventional economic solutions.
The experience of public diplomacy shows, as the organisers note, that horizontal ties between young leaders from different countries often work more effectively than many official channels. The Novosibirsk forum continues a tradition started earlier in Altai Krai, where the Growth Points project already demonstrated its relevance.
Denis Alexeyevich Borisov, Head of the Laboratory-Centre for Regional Comparative Studies 'Russia — Central Asia' at NSUEM; Director of the ANO Siberian Society for International Studies; Project Coordinator in Novosibirsk
When my colleagues in Moscow got in touch and said they wanted to hold a Growth Points forum on the topic of 'Siberia in the Greater Eurasia concept', our team agreed almost without hesitation. Not because it is simply a fine federal agenda item, but because it fitted very precisely into the vision of the future that has gradually been taking shape in Novosibirsk over recent years. For us, this topic is not an external construct or an imposed slogan. It was more of a déjà vu moment: what came from the capital was something that had long been felt here as our own agenda.
Federal documents are increasingly speaking the language of Greater Eurasia — connectivity, anchor territories, transport corridors, humanitarian interaction, and public diplomacy. Meanwhile the local environment has for several years been using its own vocabulary: 'Novosibirsk' as a concept, 'Greater Novosibirsk', agglomeration, scientific leadership, transport hub, centre of Eurasian connectivity. Until recently, all of this was perceived more as local expert and civic intuition — discussed in Siberia itself, in academic circles, in civic initiatives, in conversations about the future of the city and the region. Now it turns out that the regional vocabulary is beginning to coincide with the broader federal perspective. This is precisely why the forum matters not as a one-off event but as another step toward a more systematic conversation about the place of Siberia and Novosibirsk in Russia’s development in the twenty-first century.
For now, the model of Siberia as a 'centre of Eurasian connectivity' exists in the regional public sphere more as a mosaic of initiatives. Some intersect; others run in parallel — but they have not yet coalesced into a common concept. There are strong images: 'Novosibirsk' as a concept, 'Greater Novosibirsk', 'centre of Eurasian connectivity'. There are individual practices. Expert and civic intuition is palpable. But what is still missing is the most important element: a unified logic, a common strategy, and a shared line of conduct for government, business, universities, the expert community, and civil society structures.
Today, Siberia and Novosibirsk matter to the country not only as a territory of resources but as a territory of strategic connection. We are accustomed to speaking of 'strategic depth' — the space that ensures the country’s resilience under external pressure. But today Russia needs not only depth. It needs a new strategic centre. In this logic, Siberia ceases to be a distant rear. It becomes a space where industry, transport, science, education, personnel, and connections with Greater Eurasia can converge. All the more so as storm clouds are clearly gathering on the country’s western borders. This is not a reason for alarmism, but it is already a circumstance that demands a fresh look at security, industrial resilience, and Russia’s spatial development. In the new conditions, the question of Siberia’s reindustrialisation — and possibly partial relocation of industrial, technological, and logistical functions from West to East — has ceased to be an abstract discussion. If the country is entering a prolonged period of external pressure, it needs not only reinforced borders but internal anchor territories: spaces where industrial capacity can be built up, new cooperative chains assembled, personnel retained, transport routes developed, and connectivity with Greater Eurasian markets secured.
This is precisely why the forum’s subject matter is especially timely. The conversation about Siberia in Greater Eurasia is not about regional symbolism or another fine brand. It is a question of whether Siberia is ready to become one of Russia’s principal internal contours of resilience and development in the twenty-first century. For Novosibirsk this is especially important. Its potential cannot be reduced to the status of a large city beyond the Urals. Novosibirsk can and should be considered one of the nodes of the country’s new spatial development logic: scientific, industrial, educational, logistical, and humanitarian. The ultimate task is not simply to preserve existing advantages but to connect them into a new strategic function.
Novosibirsk is Russia’s third largest city — home to a substantial part of the human, scientific, educational, and logistical potential of the entire eastern part of the country. And yet the city is not fully realising this potential: roughly 1.5 percent of the country’s population produces approximately 1.4 percent of GDP, and in terms of gross urban product per capita Novosibirsk lags behind a number of comparable agglomerations. This is the central contradiction: in scale, Novosibirsk has long outgrown an ordinary regional centre, but in terms of its strategic inclusion in the country’s development it has not yet received a commensurate role. This contradiction cannot be resolved by local brands and individual initiatives. It requires a state-level approach — with a clear understanding of Novosibirsk’s function in the new spatial logic of Russia’s development: not simply a 'large regional centre' but one of the nodes of the country’s Eurasian connectivity.
If the country’s development horizon is genuinely shifting toward Greater Eurasia, then Novosibirsk and other Siberian centres cannot remain on the margins of that logic. For Novosibirsk the question is especially fundamental. The country needs it not as a peripheral large city waiting for an external impulse, but as one of the key nodes — a city that connects, translates, educates, designs, and launches new connections.
The potential exists — but it does not always translate into a direction of movement. This is precisely why the forthcoming forum 'Growth Points: Siberia in the Concept of Greater Eurasia' matters not only as an expert platform. It matters as an attempt to ask the right question: how can Novosibirsk’s dispersed advantages be transformed into a coherent strategic function? Because a 'centre of Eurasian connectivity' is not about a sign at the city entrance — it is about a set of practices, institutions, and decisions.
it is about transport routes that function not only as infrastructure but as channels of continuous interaction.
It is about scientific and educational programmes that attract minds.
It is about humanitarian ties that are sustained not by formal occasions, but through genuine human connection.
It is about expert platforms where the region speaks not only about itself but about the country in the modality of the future.
It is about the managerial capacity to unite diverse resources into a single political will to develop.
The International Forum 'Growth Points: Siberia in the Concept of Greater Eurasia' does not conclude the conversation. It opens it.
About the Project
The international project Growth Points is a series of educational events through which young participants are introduced to the benefits of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Union State of Russia and Belarus. The project has been implemented since March 2020 by the ANO Institute of Russians Abroad and its partners, with support from the Presidential Grants Fund and the Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund, in cooperation with the Committee on International Affairs of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Rossotrudnichestvo (the Federal Agency for CIS Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation), the administrations of a number of Russian regions, and leading universities in Russia and other EAEU countries. Between 2020 and 2024, Growth Points events took place in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia, as well as in Pskov Oblast, Moscow Oblast, Altai Krai, Moscow, St Petersburg, and the Luhansk People’s Republic. In 2025, the Evrazimut Centre for Advanced Research and Education Projects of the Eurasian Space joined the project’s implementation, and the project’s reach began to extend beyond the EAEU to include Greater Eurasia countries. In October 2025, the project was successfully implemented at partner universities in the Republic of Uzbekistan (Tashkent and Samarkand). The project’s expert body includes distinguished historians, political scientists, economists, philosophers, and journalists from Russia and EAEU countries.
The Growth Points project is intergenerational in character. Its target audience comprises representatives of youth organisations, undergraduate and postgraduate students, young researchers and experts with an interest in international affairs, and their mentors — established experts in the field of international relations. Participants are aged between 18 and 35.