According to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, President Medvedev has criticized the Foreign Ministry of being slow-moving and inefficient and of have insufficient analytical capacities.
The new International Affairs Council is to become an alternative and supplementary body engaged in foreign policy discussions. The council will also engage in training of new diplomats.
A decree on the establishment of the council was signed already in February this year. The council will be partly financed by the federal budget and partly by alternative sources. It will be formally established by the Foreign Ministry together and the Ministry of Education, with the Russian Academy of Science, Moscow State University, Moscow State University of International Relation (MGIMO), the Sankt Petersburg State University and the Fund Russkii Mir as partners.
