The Debating Club at MGIMO was founded in 2001 and since then we have enjoyed some modest but very pleasant achievements.

The teams from our Debating Club have participated in a number of World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC): Toronto (Canada), 2002; Stellenbosh (South Africa), 2003; Singapore, 2004; Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), 2005, Dublin (Ireland), 2006 and others. At the WUDC in Malaysia Zalivako Alexander and Akulich Yauheni reached ESL (English as the second language) Final. This success was followed by the break of our team (Sazonov Mikhail and Kurochkin Viacheslav) into the WUDC ESL 1/4 Final in Dublin. In 2010 two of our teams broke into EFL (English as a Foreign Language) semi-finals, one of the teams going on to win WUDC 2010 in the EFL category.

Our debaters have participated in a number of European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC) as well. We won Moscow Open Debating Championship in 2002, the Championship of Belarus in 2000 and 2001. Our members regularly take part in a number of regional and local tournaments.

Our club pioneered international debating tournaments in English in Moscow in 2004. Moscow Open Debating Tournament we held then gathered 16 teams from 8 countries. One year later 32 teams from 6 countries took part in Moscow Open 2005. In 2006 we saw 32 teams, 4 of which made a break at Worlds.

Experienced debaters run regular workshops at our Debating Club, helping novice debaters to learn the rules and basic skills and allowing more experienced debaters to hone their skills. We debate in British Parliamentary format. Our Debating Club organizes MGIMO a debating championship two times a year to select the best debaters from our university, who then go on to represent MGIMO at WUDC and EUDC.

MGIMO Debate Club enjoys a number of very experienced adjudicators, who have judged at WUDC and EUDC.