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