ISLAMABAD: An important Moscow –Islamabad Media Forum will be held on Friday, February 27, ahead of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s key visit to Moscow in the first week of March. According to details, the forum will bring together journalists, political analysts, and diplomats from Pakistan and Russia to discuss the current state of bilateral relations, explore future avenues of cooperation, and examine how the evolving Russia–Pakistan partnership is shaping global politics, the economy, and the media landscape. The first session, titled “Global Challenges and Perspectives in a Changing World: Views from Moscow and Islamabad,” will be moderated from Moscow by Peter Lidov, Counsellor at Rossiya Segodnya Media Group, and from Islamabad by Agha Iqrar Haroon, an internationally award-winning journalist, analyst, political scientist, and Chief Editor of DND News Agency. Speakers joining from Moscow will include Maria Zakharova, Director of the Information and Press Department at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Dr Roxolana Zigón, a geopolitical analyst and expert in diplomacy and international relations, who heads the Scientific Center for International and Strategic Studies and Diplomacy of Nations at the University of World Civilizations; among others. From Islamabad, Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Defense and Security, and Albert Khorev, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Pakistan, will address the forum. Session II titled, “The Perspectives of the Bilateral Relations Development Between Russia and Pakistan” will be moderated by Peter Lidov-Petrovsky, Counsellor, Rossiya Segodnya Media Group, in Moscow and Almas Haider Naqvi, senior journalist, Dunya News Group as Foreign Policy and Diplomatic Correspondent, in Islamabad. Faisal Niaz Tirmizi, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the Russian Federation, Dr Irina Serenko, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Sergei Strokan, Moscow-based geopolitical analyst and observer, Russia’s “Kommersant” Publishing House, Dr Sarwat Rauf, Head, Department of International Relations, National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Iftikhar Shirazi, Bureau Chief, Dawn, Shaukat Piracha, a senior journalist, anchor and news analyst, a special correspondent for foreign and diplomatic affairs, AAJ News will speak in the second session. Session III titled, “New Trends in the International Journalism” will be moderated by Peter Lidov-Petrovsky, Counsellor, Rossiya Segodnya Media Group, in Moscow and Tanzeela Mazhar, journalist, public speaker, head of programming at GTV and host the prime time talk show “News Today with Tanzeela Mazhar” in Islamabad. Key speakers in the session include Dimitri Alexander Simes, Head, Sputnik International, Rossiya Segodnya Media Group, Dmitry Leontiev, Executive content producer, RT, Artyom Chibarov, Head of online projects, Rossiya Segodnya Media Group, Mateen Haider, Journalist/ Anchor/ Analyst with focus on defense, foreign affairs, Associated Press of Pakistan, Dr Maria Sultan, advisor to Pakistan’s Ministry of Defense on Strategic and Military Affairs, Chairperson, South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI) University, Pakistan, Anas Malick, Bureau Chief, Asia One, and Amir Ilyas Rana, Bureau Chief, Express News. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026