From the mid-1950s, the USSR began admitting large numbers of foreign students to its universities, mainly from Third World countries. Foreign students studying in the Soviet Union constituted an inexhaustible reserve of Soviet agents throughout the world. By the time of the collapse of the USSR in 1991, there were more than 800,000 specialists worldwide who had graduated from Soviet universities in 150 countries. In the countries from which they had come and to which they were returning, associations of former Soviet students were established. By 1991, there were 72 such associations. Following the collapse of the USSR, they began to disappear, which in itself indicated that the impetus for their existence had come from Moscow. By 1992, only 22 national alumni associations remained. The situation began to change in 2003, following a speech by Putin in which he emphasised ‘the importance of engaging with foreign alumni and promoting the Russian language and culture abroad’. In May 2003, the first World Forum of Foreign Graduates of Russian (Soviet) Higher Education Institutions took place. It was organised in sections at various universities. 
The second World Forum of Foreign Graduates was held on a much grander scale in 2007. It opened in the Column Hall of the House of Unions in Moscow. The forum brought together more than 650 delegates from 135 countries around the world. 
The third forum took place in 2012. However, as stated on the website of the World Alumni Association, ‘Although the Forums were successful, they lacked adequate media coverage and therefore did not receive widespread attention nor lead to significant results regarding cooperation between Russian universities and their international alumni’.  In other words, former international students were reluctant to make contact with the relevant Russian authorities on an individual basis.
A turning point came in December 2014, when “at Rossotrudnichestvo, on the initiative of the Public Chamber, a meeting was held to improve the effectiveness of engagement with foreign graduates of Russian (Soviet) educational institutions and their associations; the meeting was attended by representatives of all key ministries and departments of the Russian Federation, the Public Chamber and civil society organisations. A decision was taken to form a working group to establish the World Association of Graduates of Russian (Soviet) Higher Education Institutions.” In May 2015, the non-governmental organisation “World Association of Graduates” was established. This illustrates a situation typical of Putin’s Russia – one that appears absurd to an outsider – where a decision to establish a non-governmental organisation is taken by government officials. 
In 2018, the European Forum of Graduates of Soviet and Russian Universities took place in Cyprus, bringing together 250 people from 21 countries.  
“Former President of Cyprus Dimitris Christofias, Stanislav Osadchiy, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Cyprus, Vladimir Platonov, President of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Nikolas Papadimitriou, President of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, Alina Radchenko, Head of the Russian Centre for Science and Culture in Nicosia; Igor Nosonov, Chair of the Co-ordinating Council of Russian Compatriots in the Republic of Cyprus; Yuri Pyanikh, President of the Association of Russian Businessmen in Cyprus; and Vladimir Chetiy, President of the World Association of Graduates.”  Following the event, a Memorandum was signed on the establishment of a regional European Co-ordinating Council (European Association) of graduates of Russian universities under the World Association of Graduates.  
The list of partners of the World Alumni Association is typical of Russian branches of the security services disguised as non-governmental organisations – the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rossotrudnichestvo, the Russian Humanitarian Mission, the Russkiy Mir Foundation, Victory Volunteers, Rosmolodezh, the Presidential Grants Fund, the ‘Russkiy Mir’ Foundation for the Protection of the Rights and Legitimate Interests of Citizens Abroad, the World Co-ordinating Council of Russian Compatriots Living Abroad, and similar state and pseudo-civil society organisations.  
The World Alumni Association comprises numerous individual associations from various universities and different countries. Some are of particular interest. In Russia, just as in the USSR, there were several universities which specialised – and continue to specialise – not so much in training agents of influence as in training intelligence operatives from among their own and foreign citizens. First and foremost, these are MGIMO, the Lumumba University of Friendship of Peoples, and the Institute of Oriental Languages, which later became the Institute of Asian and African Studies.
A comprehensive account of the Institute of Oriental Languages, established in 1956, was provided by its graduate Yuri Bezmenov, a KGB officer who worked under the cover of a journalist and defected from India to Canada in 1970: ‘... At the age of 17, after finishing secondary school, I enrolled at the Institute of Oriental Languages, a branch of Moscow State University. This institute was, in fact, under the direct control of the KGB and the Central Committee of the Communist Party – an elite breeding ground for future Soviet diplomats, foreign correspondents and spies. At the institute, in addition to studying several foreign languages and mass media, I was also required to undergo compulsory military training. During our studies, we students were taught how to play ‘strategic war games’ using maps of foreign countries. Civil defence and training in how to act in the event of a nuclear war were also key components of our education. Furthermore, we were taught ‘interrogation lessons’, which were designed to teach us how to interrogate prisoners of war. In particular, we were taught to question prisoners about their reaction to a Soviet nuclear strike directed at their country.” 
This description can be extended to all other higher education institutions that pursued similar objectives. The overseas alumni associations of these institutions can safely be regarded as intelligence centres, staffed by professionals. 
There are MGIMO alumni associations in Austria, Azerbaijan, the Arab Gulf States, Armenia, the Benelux countries, Bulgaria, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Vietnam, Germany, Spain, Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, China, Latvia, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, North America, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey, Finland, France, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. 
There is no separate MGIMO alumni association in Cyprus; there is only a general Association of Graduates of Soviet and Russian Universities, led by Anastasios Kuzalis, an alumnus of Lumumba University. However, there are a great many Russian businesspeople and lawyers with MGIMO degrees who have settled on the island. 
Among them are individuals with biographies clearly indicative of having worked for the secret services.
For example, Vladimir Alekseevich Parshikov: from 1998 to 2003, he was Senior Adviser at the Permanent Mission of Russia to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland. Since 2003, he has been Director of the Department for Humanitarian Cooperation and Human Rights at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and since 2004 has held the diplomatic rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, 2nd class.  
Or Vladislav Drobkov, a 1972 graduate of MGIMO, who served as a correspondent for *Pravda* in Athens, Brussels and Washington, and later published pro-Russian newspapers in Cyprus. 
Or Mikhail Kuzovlev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of AKB ‘ROSSIISKII KAPITAL’, Executive Managing Director since 2004, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Russian Commercial Bank (Cyprus) Ltd (Russian Commercial Bank, Cyprus), and Chairman of the Russian-Cypriot Business Council under the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.  According to some unconfirmed reports, Kuzovlev is a general in the FSB. 
There are numerous lawyers and finance specialists who graduated from MGIMO and now work at various Cypriot law firms. 
For example, Armondjon Ikramov, a freelance legal adviser to a Cypriot firm, who arrived in Cyprus in 1992 as head of the Cypriot subsidiary of the Moscow Financial Consortium and who takes an active part in the embassy’s propaganda campaigns.
Then there is Sergei Muradov, son of the former Russian ambassador to Cyprus, Georgy Muradov, who has held the post of Deputy Chairman of the Government of the occupied Crimea since 2014 and is subject to European sanctions. Sergei Muradov is the owner of a concert agency that organises tours for Russian artists in Cyprus. 
Then there are the couple Nikolai Khovrin-Komninos and Yulia Khovrina-Komninos, who claim to be descendants of Byzantine emperors. Each of them has founded a political party consisting of just one person – themselves. The husband founded the Christian Republican Party. The wife founded the United Republican Party of Cyprus. Yulia Khovrina even stood, in all seriousness, as her party’s candidate for the Cypriot presidency in 2023 (with a pro-Russian manifesto). Perhaps the very act of declaring such a manifesto was the point of this farce. 
There is an honorary doctorate holder from MGIMO – the former President of Cyprus, Dimitris Christofias, who received this title in 2008, during his presidency.  
There are also many other people engaged in a wide variety of fields who, at first glance, do not attract any attention whatsoever – if one were to forget that they all studied at Russia’s leading university for training diplomats and intelligence officers.