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Find opportunities that are right for you to continue your education outside your home country.
© 2025 Freedom Degree
Freedom Degree, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. © 2025 | Powered by Strapi
Mar 08, 2025
Zhanna Nemtsova: Zhanna Nemtsova: Our priority is to enable people to achieve their professional goals in the new reality
The Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom is one of the first large initiatives offering educational programmes abroad and supporting Russian students and academics who find themselves outside Russia. The project was founded in 2015, an academic centre was opened in 2017, and a fully functional Russian Studies Master's program has been running at Charles University in Prague since 2023. We spoke to Zhanna Nemtsova, co-founder of the Foundation, about the past, present, and future not only of this initiative, but also of Russian education and expertise in general.
The foundation was established in Germany as a charity at the end of 2015. Such organizations' activities in Germany are strictly regulated because they are tax-exempt. Our charter reflects almost the entire list of permitted activities, including the ability to engage in educational projects. Education is one of the primary areas of focus for many German foundations. Also, it is consistent with the views of my father, who strongly believed in enlightenment in all senses of the word; it is part of his political legacy. During those years, I was unaware of the potential boundaries and perspectives of this work. In the charter, we stated an ambitious goal: to eventually establish a university named after Boris Nemtsov. It appeared reasonable at the time, but it is now clear to me that it is completely unrealistic and, more importantly, pointless.
Our projects are classified as academic and non-academic. For example, from 2018 to 2024, we operated one of Russia's largest journalism schools. Our graduates include a lot of young Russian journalists, which makes me very proud. Unfortunately, we will have to suspend the Summer School beginning in 2025. This is because the Nemtsov Foundation has been classified as an undesirable organization, making it impossible for students, journalists, and researchers from Russia to visit. I am fundamentally opposed to putting people at risk of administrative or criminal prosecution. There are many other educational programs operating abroad, as well as a variety of trainings available, besides our school.
Another reason for closing the school is the severe crisis in Russian journalism. In 2018, we witnessed the emergence of new media, with young journalists dreaming of working in popular projects such as Meduza. Everything has come to an end. Russian media is experiencing a major systemic crisis, primarily financial. The government has cut off advertising and donation channels and blocked websites and platforms such as YouTube. There are likely to be additional restrictions and difficulties. In 2025, it is extremely difficult to imagine launching a successful career in Russian journalism. Our first priority right now is to create programmes that will enable people to achieve their professional goals in the new reality.
The master's program you mentioned is only indirectly related to our activities. In 2017, we established the Nemtsov Academic Center for Russian Studies. It was originally intended to be a research centre, but in practice it has evolved into an infrastructure for our non-academic projects, such as public events, lectures, presentations, and conferences. Sometimes you plan one thing but end up doing something else, which I don't see as a problem.
In 2020, I discussed with Marek Prihda, a Slavonic historian and lecturer at Charles University's Faculty of Philosophy, the possibility of establishing a master's program. The intention was to concentrate on the study of contemporary Russia and the post-Soviet space. He proposed that the Faculty of Philosophy develop a programme that would broaden the traditional areas of study at Charles University. This is one of four faculties founded in the 14th century. They didn't have any programmes about modernity, so we thought it was a good idea. Marek and I were already running the Boris Nemtsov Academic Centre at Charles University.
Then I negotiated with the faculty administration, devised a strategy, and answered numerous questions, including how to make the programme financially sustainable. Who would teach? Most of these questions were entirely new to me. I had never managed an academic programme and had no prior experience managing foundations in Europe. However, I believe that if you are a smart and organized person, you can gain practical experience quickly. As you are aware, we developed the programme prior to Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. We then underwent a lengthy accreditation process, which concluded in 2023, already during the war. Until 2022, people around me were skeptical of the idea of a master's program, but I was confident that it was a correct and, indeed, necessary step.
Of course. The Czech Republic used to be one of the top three most popular educational destinations for Russian students, with Czech being one of the most popular languages among applicants. Why? For starters, the Czech Republic has high educational standards. Second, the Czech Republic offers reasonable prices. Third, the Czech Republic provides free education in its native tongue. The Czech Republic was a very appealing destination. When our programme was accredited, there were already very strict migration rules for both Russians and Belarusians. This circumstance complicated our work and significantly reduced the number of students who could come to study there. Currently, the Czech Republic does not issue new student visas to Russian and Belarusian citizens, with the exception of those who are part of the civil society programme, which helps journalists and activists who are persecuted in their home countries.
All issues are resolved on a case-by-case basis. To adapt to the situation, we have made it possible to take entrance exams online, which was previously not permitted in the Philosophy faculty. However, visa issues remain a significant barrier. As a result, those who already live in the Czech Republic or have an EU residence permit can apply for the programme. Future policy changes in the Czech Republic are likely to alleviate these restrictions, but for the time being, it remains a difficult and almost unsolvable problem that has a significant impact on our programme and our ability to admit students. Just think, we could have 30 students per year, but we currently have only 8. The more students you have, the stronger your programme will be, because it is always built on a strong community of successful alumni. These graduates may become scholars or work in other professional fields.
I fight for our students for as long as I can and try to help them obtain their documents, but you must understand that this is a massive and time-consuming task. Some students refuse to take this route, even if they have a valid case for a visa.
We also have a small project called Ideas for Russia, which is a research initiative for students. It is about studying Russia in the context of society, economy, and politics after 2022. This is extremely difficult to do right now, owing to the prohibition on conducting field research in Russia. But we have started such an initiative, with labs on various topics. We have mentors (not just Russians), and we welcome students who want to research Russia.
We also host the Nemtsov Forum, which has nothing to do with education but invites our students and graduates from the Summer School of journalism. Last year, we planned to award the Boris Nemtsov Prize for Courage to several political prisoners, but we were unable to do so because the foundation was deemed undesirable. We are now considering a new format for the prize.
I do not see any contradictions in what you said. In my opinion, integration is preferable to isolation. However, integration is not the same as assimilation, which occurs when you dissolve into a new society. That is why I can refer to our programme as an integration programme, open to a large number of students from Russia and other post-Soviet countries. Our programme strikes a balance: some courses are taught in Russian, while others are taught in English. This eases the integration process in the early stages. You have time to practice your English, begin learning Czech, and so on.
The university itself provides a wide range of opportunities for students. The university is huge, and there is a lot going on. That is one of the reasons why I believe it is a bad idea to build a separate university from scratch. We have an accredited program at the Faculty of Philosophy which is supported by the Faculty of Social Sciences. It is one of the most powerful social science faculties in the Czech Republic, if not the strongest. In addition to the required courses, students can take electives. They can participate in exchange programmes at partner universities, which helps them make connections in a new country.
I believe that people who come here to study are already considering becoming professionals in a new country. What could they be? Who can they be? They may be specialists on Russia or the wider Central and Eastern European region. They can work in non-governmental organizations or in the media, as well as in commercial structures that do business in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Armenia, for example. It's a broad spectrum, and it ultimately depends on the individual. So far, I have found it difficult to draw any concrete conclusions about our students' career paths because the sample size is still too small.
In addition, there is a large pool of potential students from other parts of the world who are interested in Russia and the post-Soviet region. I am aware that there are many such people. Prague could be another opportunity for them, but we must keep in mind that our programme requires knowledge of Russian at the C1 level or higher. Of course, an international mix of students and teachers is always preferable to a single-national cohort. Russia, unfortunately, is one of the five major threats to the Western world, and this region will continue to be studied in one form or another.
Think Tank is a big word. In the case of Ideas for Russia, we're talking about a small research project. The academic centre does not function as a research centre, but rather as a guarantor of master's degrees and an infrastructure unit. Here's what I think about expert centres, also known as think tanks. To begin with, there are many of them, and it is impossible to compete with European ones. In almost every European country there is a think tank that closely cooperates with the country's Foreign Ministry. Second, why do we need them at all? If you and I in Europe establish such an expert centre and decide that we require it to generate expertise on Russia and even influence political decisions, it will be a fruitless task. It also requires a lot of resources. Nonetheless, there is a demand for studying Russia coming from students and we offer this opportunity. Besides, we've created a great network of experts, which is especially useful given Russia's isolation and increasing difficulty in obtaining new material.
We have a few online courses, but I would never take on a large-scale online project. This is where we have a lot of competition from the popular platform Coursera. The online education market offers a wide range of options, which are technologically advanced. I still can't think of a way to compete with them. But I have a positive attitude toward all initiatives and believe that they have every right to work within the context of online education.
Another thing is that nothing can replace face-to-face education because it provides a unique and exciting student experience. From my experience with various online schools, I can tell you that it is extremely difficult to maintain people's attention online. There must be some technological solutions; it is a complete science. On the other hand, the so-called hybrid form of learning is practically standard now, and I've never been opposed to it. However, communication, connections, networking, and informal events can all be organised online in various ways, but the end result will always be different. However you look at it, a real university is a capital-intensive project. Try to calculate how much it will cost. Only a few people on the planet can afford such large-scale projects, costing millions or billions of dollars. This is a treat for the wealthy.
Information about the program is available in the Freedom Degree database here.