Venezuelan crisis through the eyes of UNN international students

On April 24, a meeting of the International Negotiating Club was held at Lobachevsky University. It was focused on the current crisis in Venezuela.  During the debate, UNN students from Mexico, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Estonia, Colombia, Turkey, Egypt and Uzbekistan divided into three teams, and each of the teams discussed the political conflict in Venezuela in accordance with its group role. The working language of the meeting was English.

International relations students analyzed the internal political situation in Venezuela, its relations with neighboring countries and the geopolitical context of the Venezuelan problem. The group of history students revealed the historical background and possibilities for resolving the Venezuelan crisis from the position of “soft power”. The team of economists reviewed the current economic situation in Venezuela and evaluated the ability of the Maduro regime to resist the sanctions imposed by the USA.

During the discussion, a teleconference with St. Petersburg State University was organized. Viktor Kheyfets, one of the leading Russian experts on Latin America, head of the Center for Ibero-American Studies at St. Petersburg State University, professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, spoke about the current situation in Venezuela, the peculiarities of the Venezuelan crisis, and shared his experience of communicating with Venezuelan politicians. He also suggested several possible scenarios for the further development of the situation.0 International students of Lobachevsky University took the opportunity to ask the expert a number of questions on the latest events in Venezuela, and received his exhaustive answers.

In conclusion of the videoconference, the moderator of the discussion, Konstantin Kemaev,  Associate Professor at the UNN Department of University Management and Innovation in Education,  also answered students' questions, took part in an exchange of views and summed up the meeting.