MGIMO, ‘the Hogwarts of Russia’s Foreign Policy Elite,’ Teaches Its Students to ;Speak Diplomacy’ but ‘Practice Coercion,’ One who Studied There but Left Says

Paul Goble

    Staunton, Apr. 14 – The Moscow State Institute of International Relations, known mst widely as MGIMO, is “the Hogwarts of Russia’s Foreign Policy Elite” where students are taught to “speak diplomacy” but “practice coercion,” according to Inna Bondarenko, who was one of their number but broke from them and now is a researcher in Europe.

    In an essay for The Moscow Times which also is in emigration, she argues that “unlike the West, where diplomats are usually brought up on liberal institutionalism … MGIMO teaches the opposite: offensive realism. Not the nuanced academic kind but its hardened, ossified version where power is truth, might makes right and ‘spheres of influence’ are gospel.”

    The entire article, available in English at themoscowtimes.com/2025/04/14/i-trained-with-russian-diplomats-i-can-tell-you-how-they-work-a88722, is worth close reading not only for what Bondarenko says about MGIMO’s program and the impact it has on its students but also for another reason, one that sadly is too often neglected in the West today.

    She makes the point that those like herself who experienced that kind of training and then were fortunate enough to be able to break with it represent an important set of knowledge for Western diplomats and others who have to deal with MGIMO graduates. Indeed, Bondarenko suggests that learning from them is the best way to defeat the Russians they must deal with.