WorldSkills Flag visits 24 cities in Russia

It is just over a year until the WorldSkills Kazan Flag Relay makes its triumphant entry to Kazan to mark the start of the 45th WorldSkills Competition.

This month, though, the Flag Relay begins the latest and final stage of its international adventure with a journey across Russia that began over 6,000 kilometres from the host city.

For the next 12 months, the Flag Relay will introduce the world’s greatest vocational skills competition to the 144 million people who live in Russia.

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the first stop on the Russia leg, is a city on Sakhain Island on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, where the nearest neighbour is Japan.

It is a reminder of the size of Russia, the world’s biggest country, that Kazan is eight time zones away and closest to the Baltic Sea.

Beginning at the Opening Ceremony for the 6th Young Professionals National Competition organised by WorldSkills Russia in Youzhno-Sakhalinsk, the Flag Relay plans to make 24 stops in Russia before the Competition begins.

They include Moscow, the second stop on the Relay in August, St Petersburg in November, and the Republic of Bashkortostan in December, with ten cities scheduled for 2019, concluding in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan and the sixth most populous city in Russia.