A corps of 450 volunteers drawn from 54 regions of Russia has been deployed to support the smooth delivery of the 2025 World Youth Festival Assembly, officially launched on 15th September in Nizhny Novgorod.

The Assembly, part of a wider initiative to foster international youth dialogue, is set to attract participants from across the globe.

The Director General of the World Youth Festival Directorate, Dmitry Ivanov, lauded the volunteers’ commitment, noting that more than 3,700 applications were received, from which 520 were selected.

“Volunteers are the foundation of any event: you create its atmosphere, ensure the smooth operation of all services, and represent Russian hospitality to our foreign friends,” he stated.

Seventy volunteers will be stationed at Moscow airports and railway hubs to welcome international arrivals, while the remaining 450 will manage operations at the venue.

Svetlana Anufrieva, Minister of Youth Policy of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, emphasised the importance of the volunteer corps in bridging domestic and international engagement. “They carry a great responsibility, to welcome and assist not only guests from other regions of the country but also a large number of international participants. It is the volunteers who are the face of the Gathering,” she said, pledging the region’s full support to ensure their wellbeing.

The volunteers will work across nine key areas, including logistics, media relations, accreditation, protocol service, catering, language services, and programme implementation.

Ahead of the Assembly, they underwent extensive training on online and on-site, covering the volunteer code, cultural sensitivity, and practical case studies.

To inspire the corps, performances were staged by local artists, including Anastasia Mokrushova, who performed under her creative pseudonym KOZ.A.

The volunteer programme is backed by the “Volunteers 800” project, with partnerships spanning leading organisations such as the Russian Music Union, Russian Railways, Phygital Games, VK, Rosatom, and the Central Bank of Russia.

Media support is led by international broadcaster RT and the publishing group Arguments and Facts, with additional cultural backing from Soyuzmultfilm and the African Initiative.

The Assembly, coordinated by Rosmolodezh and the Government of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, forms part of Russia’s national “Youth and Children” project.

It is positioned as a legacy of the 2024 World Youth Festival in Sirius, which convened 20,000 young people from 190 countries.

Looking ahead, Russia will host the next full-scale World Youth Festival in 2030, with intermediate events, including annual Assemblies, designed to sustain momentum and strengthen international youth cooperation.