<p>I have a bachelors in poli sci and a masters in international development but have been very interested in Eastern Europe and Russia for some time now. I have not had an opportunity to travel there or study the languages. Is it still possible to be accepted to a program for this?</p>
<p>No. Not until you get Russian (or another Eastern European language) solid under your belt. Think about your competition- those are going to be people who have been interested in that area for a long time and have good proficiency in Russian.</p>
<p>I would say…most likely not.</p>
<p>Being interested in something and devoting 5+ years of full-time study to it are very different things. </p>
<p>Your first action should be to learn the language, read all you can about the topic and then decide if that is still what you want to pursue.</p>
<p>You just need a language exchange partner from Russia/Ukraine/other ex-CIS member states (learning via skype). There are a lot people that are searching for language exchange partner in English.
P.S. Желаю Вам удачи (“Wish You Good Luck” in Russian ;)).</p>