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Five
Russian economists and an interpreter came to
Reston
for a week in November to observe US elections and study American
government at all levels.
The branch started working on this project in May, after receiving a
grant from the Open World program of the Library of Congress.
We developed a program that included meetings with elected
officials at state, county and local levels, with congressional staff on
Capitol Hill, and with local leaders of political parties and volunteer
organizations; plus visits to campaign headquarters, South Lakes High
School, and to our local library, homeless shelter, food pantry and
Laurel Learning Center, and a visit to a polling place on Election
Day.
We arranged for the group to be briefed on election issues generally and
on the two main presidential candidates and took them to the final Obama
rally in
Manassas
. In the broader community,
the Reston Rotary Club invited the visitors to lunch and John Lovaas
interviewed them on his “Reston Impact” TV show; and we held a
“town meeting” for the community to come and ask questions of our
visitors. We are now working
on ways to extend the project’s outreach, including the possibility of
a relationship with a women’s organization in
St. Petersburg
and a student exchange.
“We
got to observe
America
from the inside; it broke down our stereotype of the
U.S.
and we broke the American stereotype of us,” 
said Mikail Magomedov, a member of the delegation from the
Republic
of
Dagestan
.
Articles from Reston Observer
10/31 &
11/14
View video on Reston
Impact
(scroll down to "Russian Delegation"
then click on arrow)
Photos from Reston
Connection
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