Pastukhova Larisa is a Vice-rector for the project activities of Moscow State Industrial University, PhD. Since 2006 she is teaching in the disciplines: “Strategic Management”, “Personnel Marketing”, “Political Science”, and “Municipal Law”. Larisa Sergeyevna is the author of publications on youth policy, youth movements and self-management, youth human resource development.

Larisa Pastukhova is the leader of the project “My country - my Russia”, which in many parts of the country has become the embodiment of civic initiatives among youth.

The project “My country - my Russia” is a vivid example when an initiative born in civil society received strong support of state authorities, local governments, experts and young people
The project was born in 2003 in Ryazan on the results of the I All-Russian seminar on the development of youth parliamentarism in Russia. Authors of the idea are young people from six cities of our country: Arkhangelsk (Kseniya Fyodorova), Moscow (Mikhail Minin), Ryazan (Larisa Pastukhova), Kolomna (Sergey Kochnev), Kaliningrad (Alexey Feschak) and Novosibirsk (Vera Pronkina).

Larisa Pastukhova recalls the history of the project, “2003 was a period of heated debate on the reform of local self-government. We argued and shared experience in the implementation of social projects in our regions, experience in promoting legislative initiatives. There was an understanding of the need to create additional mechanisms to involve youth in the development of municipalities, creation of a platform where young people can share their experience on a meaningful basis. Thus the idea of the contest “My country – my Russia” - for youth was born. In the first stage the contest included nominations that reveal the ideas of RF Law No. 131 “On general principles of local self-government”. It was one of the mechanisms of promotion of the Law in the youth community.”

Since 2006 the project has gained the status of the all-Russian one. The main objective of the project is to attract young people to solve the acute problems of Russian regions, towns and villages. The project is aimed at young people aged 14 to 25 years. Since 2009 the project has also been involving the youth of the CIS countries. Organizational committees of the project work in 69 constituent entities of the Russian Federation at the regional, municipal, university levels. The main organizers of the project are the All-Russian Union of Public Associations “Youth Socio-Economic Initiatives”.

Today, the project “My country – my Russia” is not only a contest for young authors, but also an inter-regional educational platform, educational center, and an internet platform for discussion of successful innovation projects and their further replication in practice. The project involves representatives of different professions and ages.
The main event of the project is the All-Russian competition of youth original projects aimed at socio-economic development of Russian territories “My country – my Russia”. In addition, some other events are held annually: 

• • All-Russian educational camp-workshop aimed at teaching children and youth to participate in the mechanisms of decision-making at the local level “Territory of Development” (for the project participants aged 14 to 18)  
• • All-Russian educational forum of young strategists and scientific and practical conference of youth original projects - educational platforms in the regions and municipalities in Russia
• • competition for young journalists “The word of my country”.  

Year by year the idea of the project becomes interesting for more and more young people. Each year the winners of the project are nominated for the awards to support talented young people in the framework of the priority national project “Education”. During the years the competition generated a database of young talented personnel from all regions of Russia, bank of practical ideas for the development of Russian cities and towns, interactive online platform has been launched. . 

Larisa Pastukhova says about the prospects of the project, “We hope that in the next few years the project will receive a new breath, it will be in demand and will actively develop. I see the development of the contest, first of all, in its educational component. Namely: First. The replication of practices of teaching young people skills for development of programs for socio-economic development of Russian territories (towns and villages); participation in the public expertise of adopted regulatory legal acts; participation in decision-making at the local level.
Second. Training of authors of the projects, expert support in the finalization of the contest project to the possibility of its practical implementation
Third. Creating active medium between the participants for inter-regional cooperation, which could encourage the formation of inter-regional projects and initiatives.

On the part of public authorities at the federal level, the project each year is supported by: the State Duma of the Russian Federation; Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Federal Agency for Youth Affairs. Since 2013 the contest has been supported by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives to promote new projects.