The International Association "Sister Cities" was founded in 1964.

The main objective of the Association is to promote the movement of cities’ twinning, the establishment and development of friendly relations between cities and regions of the CIS Member States both within the CIS and beyond. More than 180 cities of Russia and the CIS countries participate in the activities of the Association.

The Association was a partner from the Russian side of the Youth Forum of partner cities of Russia and Germany which had been held since 2017 by the Russian Coordinating Bureau of youth cooperation with Germany, the German-Russian Forum and the Foundation for German-Russian Youth Exchange with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation and the Federal Foreign Office (Germany).