Since 2000, a youth forum of the same name has been held in the area of Lake Seliger. Initially, activists of the "Walking Together" movement gathered at it, after its reorganization into the pro-Kremlin movement "Nashi" - an asset of "Nashists", and since 2009 it has been converted into an all-Russian event for active youth striving for politics and power.
The forum takes place over a month - from early July to early August, in four shifts of 8 days each. It has more than 10 sections devoted to various topics - from creative to political orientation. According to the organizers' forecasts, in 2012 more than 20 million people living in various Russian regions will participate in the forum.
Young people who have arrived at Seliger have the opportunity to take part in several educational programs. The organizers claim that in terms of its information content, a week spent at the forum is equivalent to a whole year of study at a university. However, as follows from the exchange of views of the participants of this event of past years, mainly young people come here to relax in a beautiful place for free in the summer and "hang out" with their peers.
Meanwhile, the event is not cheap. To ensure the work of the forum, about 250 tons of various equipment are involved, and more than 2 thousand tents will be required to accommodate the participants. In addition, the estimate takes into account the cost of 7 thousand tons of paper and 10 terabytes of Internet traffic. Rosmolodezh, under the auspices of which the forum is being held, expects that part of the costs will be paid by sponsors. But only from the federal budget in 2012 about 300 million rubles were allocated for the forum, the same amount is planned to be received from sponsors.
However, every year there are fewer and fewer people to find those wishing to sponsor this pompous event, despite the fact that every year the forum is attended by top officials of the state - the president, the prime minister, the chairman of the election commission. Only last year, Italian stationery maker Moleskine, automobile concern Mercedes, Intel corporation and high-tech tableware maker Tupperware refused to cooperate with him.
In 2012, about 100 more companies did not accept the offer of cooperation with the Seliger Forum. Probably, this is connected with an increase in the amount of financing from the budget, initially it was planned to allocate "only" 200 million of federal money.
