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Putin to meet with members of Russia’s bid committee for World Youth Festival

Putin’s plans for Thursday also include a meeting with members of the Russia bandy team which won gold at the latest championship in Ulyanovsk

© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet on Thursday with members of Russia’s bid committee for the 19th World Festival of Youth and Students due to be held in Russian in 2017, the Kremlin press service said.

The World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY), which comprises about 160 youth organizations, took a decision in early February that the next Festival of Youth and Students in 2017 will be held in Russia.

Participants in Thursday’s meeting will include representatives of Russian WFDY member organizations, national youth associations and students’ societies from a number of Russia’s biggest higher educational establishments. They will inform the president about preparations for the forthcoming youth forum which is expected to be attended by at least 30,000 delegates from 140 world nations.

Putin’s plans for Thursday also include a meeting with members of the Russia bandy team which won gold at the latest championship in Ulyanovsk.

In November 2015, a session of the WFDY General Assembly in the Cuban capital city, Havana, approved Russia’s bid to host the youth festival in 2017, the Russian bid being the only one supported by the WFDY. Russia offered its Black Sea resort city of Sochi as possible host for the youth forum. They city has practically all necessary infrastructure after the Winter Olympic Games in 2014. A WFDY commission in early February positively assessed Sochi’s bid. The final decision on the host city will be taken at a meeting due later in spring in Ecuador.

Russia offers to organize the festival in late summer or early autumn.

The festival is held every four years starting from 1947. The first festival was held in Prague. Moscow has hosted the event twice, in 1957 and 1985. The previous World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Ecuador in 2013.

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