The International Chodiev Foundation was established in 1996 by the successful businessman and keen philanthropist Dr Patokh Chodiev.
Having graduated magna cum laude from MGIMO 20 years earlier, Dr Chodiev maintained close ties with the university and decided to set up a charitable foundation that would help his alma mater to fulfil even more of its intellectual potential.
The Foundation’s first project was the creation of an award and grant programme to recognize the academic achievements of existing MGIMO students.
This was expanded shortly afterwards to include a scholarship programme that would allow talented students who would not otherwise have the opportunity to progress their education. Over the next two decades, these initial projects were extended into a global programme that today encompasses nearly all the departments and faculties of the University.
In 2021, ICF signed the Memorandum of Cooperation with MGIMO-Tashkent, offering its support to the first foreign branch of MGIMO. New scholarship programmes for MGIMO-Tashkent students were announced in 2021 and 2022.
Driven by an ambition to provide life-changing assistance to those in need, the Foundation began to explore partnerships with other schools, as well as with children’s homes and medical centers, and we became increasingly acclaimed for our work in the fields of humanitarian aid and education.
In 2002, the Foundation received an official message of thanks from Russian Patriarch Alexy II for our efforts “to preserve and expand Russia’s future intellectual potential” through the establishment of an educational institution for gifted children, founded in co-operation with Lomonosov Moscow State University.
In that same year, the Foundation aided the reconstruction of a church-run orphanage in Moscow and subsequently partnered with the Odessa Rehabilitation Center in Ukraine, “The House with an Angel”, which provides treatment and support for children with autism and cerebral palsy.
In 2017, ICF established its representative office in Uzbekistan, with the main purpose of providing support to the scientific, medical and social projects in the country, and to offer assistance to schools, orphanages and medical institutions for children with disabilities.
In 2020, ICF has extended its social programme in Uzbekistan and Russia to help mitigate the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the most vulnerable members of society. The Foundation launched a range of programmes, amongst which were the distribution of food and sanitising supplies to people in need across Uzbekistan, provision of medical and personal protective equipment to the Research Institute of Virology in Tashkent, provision of both humanitarian and medical support to migrant workers from Uzbekistan and their families living in Moscow and Moscow oblast.
Since 2021, ICF has been implementing a number of social and environmental projects in Uzbekistan, such as Clean Water Project, humanitarian aid to vulnerable women, and trade fairs for people with disabilities, among others.
In addition to our educational and humanitarian work, and driven by our founder’s deep-rooted love of Japanese culture and language, the Foundation has developed a broad range of intercultural activities between Japan and Russia over the past two decades. All with a view to forging closer links between the two countries.
Starting with the sponsorship of cultural events such as the Shostakovich music festival in Tokyo in 1998, and events around the development of the Russia Japan Treaty in 2000, the Foundation has gone on to partner and organize a host of Japanese cultural activities, in addition to supporting international research and educational placements for top MGIMO students in Japanese universities.
Since 2009, the Foundation has been the main sponsor of J-Fest, a popular annual festival of contemporary Japanese culture in Russia.
In 2015, the Foundation began to sponsor Russian Culture Days in Japan, gathering together more than 900 cultural experts to promote Russian theatre, cinema and exhibitions.
In the last five years the Foundation has expanded its scope of cultural programmes to include the sponsorship of the Kabuki theatre tour in Russia, a creation of a trilogy of documentaries dedicated to the history of Japan, its culture, and its relationship with Russia and the Russian people (‘Multifaceted Japan’, ‘Building Trust: Russians in Japan’ and ‘Hokkaido: The Way to the Northern Seas’), a number of children and youth-related programmes across Russia (‘SMIrotvorets’ and ‘Children of Russia’ competitions), and cultural and art events in Uzbekistan (commemorating Shuhrat Abbasov, premier of ‘Kumush’ opera).
Our Founder’s long-standing contribution to the development of economic and cultural relations between Japan and Russia was recognised in 2020 by two prestigious awards – The Order of the Rising Sun (the highest Order of Japan) and The Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation.
As testament to Dr Chodiev’s appreciation of Japanese art and tradition, in 2011 he rescued the Itchiku Kubota Museum and its world-famous collection of 104 Kubota kimono from financial difficulty, preserving them for future generations.
Since then, the Foundation has organized and sponsored exhibitions of the kimono around the world, bringing their beauty to new audiences. Please visit The Kubota Collection website to find out more about the master, his legacy and the museum.
Since its inception in 1996, the Foundation has evolved into a global philanthropic center for education, academic research, the arts and humanitarian causes.
We’re incredibly proud of all that we’ve achieved so far, but we also keenly look forward to continuing what we see as incredibly important and varied roles in people’s lives, to starting new and valuable initiatives, and to partnering with other positive, philanthropic causes and institutions to reach out even further.