Материалы чтений памяти Б. Н. Мельниченко и С. Е. Трифонова

114 received the opportunity to study in Russia, are the important mecha- nism for creating the understanding of Russia among Thai citizens. When Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra began to govern Thai- land at the beginning of 21 century, he officially visited Russia in 2002 and 2005. Thailand’s Prime Minister was interested to interact with other great powers apart from the US, China, and Japan, Thailand stared to promote cooperation with Russia. Russia was the new mar- ket Thailand interested to trade with and investing in. For Thailand, when the relations with Russia proceeded, Russia would become the hub that connected Thailand to the other Commonwealth of Indepen- dent States. Although the Thai government at that time attempted to develop the cooperation in various aspects with Russia, they still faced a crucial obstacle, which was not only the lack of personnel, who would work for the development of the relations with Russia, enforcing the government’s policy, but also their lack of knowledge and understand- ing of the specifics which resulted to the inability to improve the rela- tion as it had been expected. The Faculty of Liberal Arts in the Thammasat University initiat- ed the interdisciplinary courses regarding Russia in 2003. The Russian Studies Program was introduced at the time when Thailand focused on developing cooperation with Russia. It could be said that the univer- sity attempted to provide the knowledge for both the government and private sectors, and to train students, who would become the impor- tant workforce for the development of cooperation between Thailand and Russia. For example, the Russian Studies Program at Thammasat Univer- sity has curriculum that focuses mainly on Russian studies in an inter- disciplinary study that includes knowledge of politics, economy, mili- tary, society, and culture. The highlights, for instance, are the Russian language, history of Russia, politics and governance of Russia, and Rus- sian foreign policy. Furthermore, the students will have the opportu- nity to do their own research on the topics about Russia and the Com- monwealth of Independent States during their senior year [ โครงการรัสเซีย ศึกษา 2561]. The program provides for the enrollment of approximately 100 students per year and there are about 80–90 graduates per year. Af- ter graduation, some graduates from the Russian Studies Program may apply for the Russian government scholarships to pursue a master’s de- gree and a doctoral degree [Embassy of The Russian Federation in the Kingdom of Thailand 2021] and then return to become the civil ser- vants in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Commerce, the