Our heartfelt congratulations on National Unity Day! This public holiday is among the most important ones in our country. It commemorates the historical events that took place in 1612 when the people of Russia, led by Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky, united to defeat the Polish invaders and liberate Moscow. Now, November 4 is celebrated to promote national unity and the diversity of Russia’s cultures.

Today, we were happy to welcome Professor Luis Romero-Rodríguez as our guest speaker for the Current Issues of Mass Media course. 🎓 Dr. Romero-Rodríguez is Professor of Strategic Communication at the College of Communication, University of Sharjah, UAE. He also coordinates the university’s Public Relations and Institutional Communication Research Group. His areas of expertise include strategic and corporate communication, digital media, artificial intelligence, media literacy, disinformation, organisational communication, and higher education. In his lecture, Professor Romero-Rodríguez introduced the concept of Almediation — a new regime where generative AI replaces professional gatekeeping with a single interface that selects, synthesizes, and composes answers for the user. He believes that credibility no longer rests on who is speaking or who agrees, but on how complete the compiled answer appears. A comparison of three AI tools answering the same medical question revealed they shared only one source, showing that selection follows domain authority. Professor Romero-Rodríguez argues that opacity is a design and governance variable rather than a fate and calls for critical AI literacy. We thank Professor Romero-Rodríguez for sharing insights on such a topical issue!

Moscow Readings-2026 have come to an end! Here’s a look at the scale of this year’s discussions on ethnic media: 🗓️ 2 days of knowledge sharing 🌟 2 major plenary sessions 💬 16 thematic panel sessions and round tables 📢 130+ research presentations We united brilliant minds from 16 countries across the globe! 🇷🇺 Russia • 🇧🇾 Belarus • 🇦🇲 Armenia • 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan • 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan • 🇨🇳 China • 🇮🇳 India • 🇮🇷 Iran • 🇮🇶 Iraq • 🇵🇰 Pakistan • 🇲🇾 Malaysia • 🇹🇷 Turkey • 🇿🇦 South Africa • 🇪🇸 Spain • 🇺🇸 USA • 🇪🇬 Egypt We are grateful to everyone who took part in this lively exchange of ideas! Photos: Olga Vladychenko