Russian youth affairs agency plans to spend 3 million rubles on teaching students to combat ‘fake news and post-truth’

Rosmolodyozh, Russia’s federal agency for youth affairs, plans to develop programming that will teach university students how to stand up against “fake news,” “post-truth” and rhetorical manipulation techniques.

A contract auction for the program was first spotted by the newspaper Vedomosti. Russia’s official government purchases website indicates that Rosmolodyozh plans to spend 3 million rubles ($46,695) on the program, which will take the form of a survey and a series of lectures titled “Russia and the World: Understanding the Future.”

Vedomosti spoke with experts on contemporary Russian politics who said the program likely represented a reaction to youth involvement in this summer’s opposition protests. However, the newspaper’s sources did not expect the program to decrease young people’s willingness to join similar protests in the future.