The Moscow Translation Club has evolved into the Russian Association of Translation Companies — the localization industry’s newest association.

The Russian Association of Translation Companies (RATC) was officially registered with the Russian Federation government in July, and is on track to join the European Union of Associations of Translation Companies (EUATC).

Active member and co-founder of the Moscow Translation Club (MTC) Janus Worldwide announced the official registration of the RATC, an association that complies with Russian law and begins with 12 companies from across the Russian Federation. MTC members will become primary members of the association, and will be presented in the first RATC board. Margarita Yegorova of MegaText — a translation agency and board member of MTC — will serve as president, supervise activity, and represent the RATC in an official capacity.

Moreover, the three vice presidents — Serge Gladkoff of Logrus Global, Konstantin Josseliani of Janus Worldwide, and Alexey Shesterikov of Awatera — will take over the responsibilities of setting up international operations. Chair of the board Nikolay Kulikov of AKM Translations will manage the board and the association, and coordinate its governing bodies.

Founded in 2014 by leading Russian translation companies, the MTC arranges events to discuss issues in the translation and localization industry. Members of the MTC came up with the idea to obtain legal status for the RATC to protect the interests of the industry and promote its development with legal standing.

As founder of the MTC and president of the largest translation company in Russia, Josseliani hopes to apply his experience to the RATC to benefit the translation industry as a whole. He will manage cooperation with Russian legal entities and social organizations, procedural work, and any other responsibilities deemed necessary by RATC members.

Now that the registration has taken place, the association is slated to join the EUATC, which will enable exchange in and representation of the Russian translation industry. “We have been working with leading members of the Moscow Translation Club since last year providing them with our guidance on how to go about forming an association,” said Geoffrey Bowden, secretary of EUATC. “While there are some formalities to go through, we anticipate that the Russian Association will be admitted into membership of the EUATC at its next virtual General Meeting on September 18.”