In AEGEE-Moskva you can find a large board, which not only organises very interesting and original events during the year, but also is full of energy in order to carry out plans with the twin antenna, Izmir, and prepared an amazing New Year Event (NYE) in collaboration with AEGEE-Kyïv. We spoke with Maria Kochkina, 23 years old, External Relations Responsible, and the Board of AEGEE-Moskva who told us about how AEGEE-Moskva’s 24th birthday was celebrated.
The AEGEE-Moskva board members are: Daria Lovkova (President), Christina Reshetova (Secretary), Maria Zharikova (Treasurer), Sergey Agaltsov (PR-Responsible), Anna Cherezova (HR-Responsible), Ekaterina Popova (FR-Responsible), Ivan Lukomskiy (IT-Responsible), Kirill Grigoriev (University Responsible), Maria Kochkina (External Relations Responsible) and Ekaterina Kalinina (Local Events Responsible).
Two of
the current board members were in the previous board 2014-2015: Ekaterina Popova and Maria Kochkina as President and PR-Responsible accordingly. Most of Board members are quite AEGEE-experienced: “the most experienced one” – says Maria – “is our Treasurer with five years in AEGEE and the newest one is Kirill Grigoriev who joined our antenna in October 2015”. Almost half of the Board visited Agora-Kyiv, where Sergey Agaltsov won the Summer University photo contest.
The antenna is very diversified when it comes to studies, work or hobbies. For example, the President teaches English and the HR-Responsible both studies and teaches languages, meanwhile the Local Events Responsible and University Responsible study law and the FR-Responsible studies economics.
AEGEE-Moskva, currently composed of 116 members, has ot a mascot called 
“Zvezdun”. Its full name is “Zvezdun Grigor’evich”. “Zvezda” means “star” in Russian. The last part of the name is after its “father”, one of the members of the local antenna, Grigoriy Frolov. It all started a long time ago when an AEGEE-Moskva member bought a T-shirt of his antenna in 2012. That T-shirt has seen both Agorae in 2012, one SU in Greece, has been at the Baikal Lake with Transiberian Dream vol. 4 and also visited AEGEE-Moskva’s 21st birthday party. “After that great AEGEE-spirit absorption”- adds Maria – “the owner of this T-shirt, Ksenia Lupanova, sewed it into our mascot – Zvezdun. Our current mascot is resewed, but it has the heart of the previous one, literally made out of that T-shirt full of AEGEE-spirit”.
About plans with their twin antenna, AEGEE-Izmir, the Russian antenna has already had monthly Skype-calls, made knowledge transfer and tried to get as much as possible from the relation. It started to organise some activities such as postcrossing and so on. Two of the AEGEE-Izmir board members already participated in the pre event in Moscow.
About the current bad situation between Russia and Turkey, Maria says, “we signed a twin-contract with the amazing guys from Izmir, but not with the politicians. So, nothing can stop us to make it real”. AEGEE-Moskva already made an announcement
about it in cooperation with other AEGEE locals from Turkey and Russia. It was said that whatever happens in politics , whatever the media shows, AEGEE antennae will continue to love each other.
There are some perks of having a twin antenna like Izmir. According to Maria, the Izmir antenna is special because of the different way of thinking, for example. If you understand people’s minds, it will give you more power in organising events or just the daily work of the antenna. In their opinion, AEGEE-Izmir is good in fundraising, HR and social work. AEGEE-Moskva members were so much inspired by their colleagues, that they also started to try doing some steps in that area. For example, AEGEE-Moskva found a new general sponsor whose name is Teremok. It is a fast food chain of homemade Russian food. Teremok supported the antenna with its NYE Capital Cities # 2 and helped to present Russian cuisine to foreigners. AEGEE-Moskva got 35 certificates for NYE and every participant could enjoy their tasty pancakes and other food for free. “It’s a great achievement for us” says Maria.
AEGEE-Moskva members create a calendar with themselves almost every year and try to make them thematic; this year was no exception. This time they stuck to the traditional Russian style, which actually became very popular in their antenna last autumn. They also launched a Russian tea party project on their Agora Kyiv pre event. That’s why the calendar as well is full of members wearing colorful traditional clothes. About twenty people took part in the creation of the calendar and they chose the best shots to be printed.
A few weeks ago antenna celebrated its 24th birthday. For this event, they organised a superhero party. “That was a crazy celebration” says Maria. They gathered in a cafe, had a presentation of their antenna’s achievements, different games and ate a fantastic blue cake (the birthday cake) which looked like an AEGEE star with the mascot Zvezdun on top. Everybody came in astonishing costumes including Winter Soldier from Captain America, Wonder Woman, Buzz Lighter and others. There were also some creative costumes like Captain Obvious. All the members wore superhero costumes and the award for the best one was won by Katja Sokerina: truly the most stylish.
Recently AEGEE-Moskva has organised an EDL for the third time. The name of this one was “La Pelicula” and, as it can be guessed, the theme was connected to films and movies. For example, during the coffee-breaks AEGEE members showed different TV-series like Friends and Scrubs and pieces of movies in corresponding languages. This time they provided lessons on French, Italian, Spanish and English. Most of teachers found with help of the members and the English language session were provided by the President Daria Lovkova. There were around 100 participants and it was really a fun!
About “The Market of Possibilities” which took place at The People’s Friendship University of Russia, Maria explains, “from the 30th November till the 4th December 2015, thirty young future leaders and specialists from Germany, Russia and Ukraine came together in Moscow to try to resolve current complications and discuss prospects of the trilateral relations. The highlight of the forum was an open 
panel discussion with experts from the three countries”. In particular, the Russian Local Antenna presented its organisation and participated in the discussion called “Two years after Euromaidan – Challenges and prospects for future cooperations”.
AEGEE-Moskva has already started working on the next Summer University (SU) and has a coordinator, Sergey Agaltsov. For now it has a general concept and theme of the SU, possible activities and budget. It is doing this SU for the 8th time and gathering all the experience it gained so far, to try its best to make it really amazing. Keeping suspense about AEGEE-Moskva SU, it will have a history and culture thematic with great twists (at least 8 of them).
AEGEE-Moskva has organised the NYE of 2015 with AEGEE-Kyiv. “The last minutes of the year”- adds Maria – “are always special. We are all standing together, kissing and hugging each other”. In Russia they have a saying: “How you celebrate NYE will show how you will spend the whole year”. So, it means that the participants will spend New Year in the AEGEE family. In fact Europeans are still interested in Ukrainian and Russian experience. Maria does not exclude to make a NYE with an Italian antenna like AEGEE-Cagliari. According to her, it would be a really nice experience and an occasion to compare culture and share traditions. Also it would be great as we could experience cold and warm weather at the same event. “We are always open for new projects and ideas!” says Maria.
Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari