OREANDA-NEWS. The Russian International Affairs Council presented the report “10 Steps towards Effective Public Diplomacy in Russia” indicating the ways to improve country’s image abroad.

According to the document, it is necessary to create a department of public diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which will become a coordination centre for working with foreign audience. Experts pointed out the disunity, because of which the Russian parliament, the Foreign Ministry and a number of state-owned media are engaged in public diplomacy at the same time.

It is also proposed to invest more budget funds in long-term international programmes with participation of foreigners. In addition, the Council considers it necessary to give more grants to support young leaders outside the Commonwealth of Independent States, to finance the study of foreign students in Russia, and to support domestic nonprofit organizations implementing projects outside of the country using other languages.