WASHINGTON, D.C. - Two Open World alumni are presenting at the PONARS Eurasia Policy Conference this Friday, September 18 at George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs. Yulia Nikitina from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) is chairing a panel on security challenges for Russia and the West. She was a delegate with the Open World program in 2010 to Versailles, KY. Sergey Minasyan from the Caucasus Institute in Yerevan, Armenia is on the panel titled, “Russian Military Power after Ukraine.” He is a former Rumsfeld Fellow and traveled with the Open World program to Kansas City in 2013.

Yulia Nikitina is an instructor at the Moscow State University of International Relations. She is an expert, studying Russian and American local community’s collaboration.

Dr. Sergey Minasyan is Deputy Director and Head of Political Studies Department at the Caucasus Institute. He produces and supervises research on foreign policy and regional security issues. His professional interests embrace ethno-political conflicts, national and regional security issues, military-political issues and international relations.

Past Alumni Activities

Two Open World alumni presented on open government and anti-corruption in a post-Euromaidan Ukraine on Monday, September 14 at the OpenGov Hub. Iryna Fedoriv is an upcoming delegate traveling to Springfield, IL on September 30, 2015 as part of an Open World independent media program and Oleksandra Ustinova is a 2014 delegate from Odessa who was hosted in Baltimore, MD. The brown bag lunch presentation was sponsored by the Sunlight Foundation and OpenGov Hub. These accomplished young reformers shared their experiences and insights on potential opportunities for open government and the future of Ukraine.

Iryna Fedoriv is the Regional Coordinator for Civic Movement “Chesno,” a non-governmental organization Center UA. Her responsibilities include monitoring the performance of the local government in Ukraine and the development of regional independent media. Iryna helped local volunteers create and develop “Communities’ Website” into a powerful platform for local journalists and bloggers, which helped to unite the community and defend their rights. Her initiatives have spread creating independent online platforms in other regions. Iryna actively fights against censorship and corruption and combines her editorial activity for “Communities’ Website” with the coordination of network of regional activists “Chesno,” which monitors the activities of deputies on different levels.

Oleksandra Ustinova is a public relations manager with the Anti-Corruption Action Center, a Ukrainian civil society organization which unites experts from legal, media and civic-political sectors fighting corruption as a root cause of the key state-building problems in Ukraine. Oleksandra is responsible for communication with partners and management of the organizational Facebook page with almost 60,000 followers. Oleksandra took part in lobbying a line of bills and other regulatory legal acts.