App designed to help foreign students adapt to life in Russia officially rolls out

MOSCOW, September 21. /TASS/. A Yekaterinburg-based team has launched an app designed to help foreign students adapt to life in Russia, the press service of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) reported. The application was dubbed Privet (Russian for ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello’)

"The Privet project from Yekaterinburg made the top 300 list of initiatives at the 'Strong Ideas for a New Time' forum and received support from the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI). The service helps international students navigate migration procedures, prepare the necessary documents, and understand where to turn for help within their university," the statement said.

The developers created a unified administrative dashboard for university staff to manage information on international students and track their progress through migration procedures. Privet can integrate with existing university information systems, eliminating the need for a complete system overhaul.

The press service also highlighted that the app aims to lower the language barrier. The service is currently available in 13 languages: Russian, English, Chinese, Arabic, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Tajik, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Hindi, Turkmen, and Turkish.

"The platform serves as a unified digital service for both university staff and international students. Staff members can view the list of international students and track their progress through migration procedures. For their part, students see a clear, step-by-step roadmap rather than a collection of disjointed instructions, showing what has already been completed and what action needs to be taken next," project creator Artyom Plaksin said.

The project team is currently negotiating partnerships with universities in the Ural Federal District. The next stage will involve launching the application at a pilot university, before introducing the service in other Russian regions. The application is already available for download.

The Agency for Strategic Initiatives and the Roscongress Foundation organize the "Strong Ideas for a New Time" forum, with support from VEB.RF. This year, the forum received over 48,000 initiatives from all 89 Russian regions — nearly a one-third increase compared to the previous year.