St Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation continues networking with Russian universities. In June 2011 School Director Irina Alexeeva visited the Astrakhan University which hosted a traditional Summer School for interpreters and translators organized by the Russian Union of Translators and headed by its president L. Gurevich. There were heated discussions about the state of literary translation in Russia, about the importance and quality of training interpreters, about translators’ certification and other issues. Marco Benedetti, Director General of the SCIC, presented a report about the perspectives of interpreting and translation in Europe and in the world. Astrakhan University develops modern Master’s programmes in interpreting and translation in European and Oriental languages, such as Pushtu, Uzbek, Kazakh and others. Summer heat, at times reaching 43 degrees Celsius, did not disrupt serious discussion of these issues. Seeing strong centers of interpreting and translator training emerging in the regions, and a spirit of collegiality among the budding interpreting and translation industry is encouraging indeed.