The Valdai Discussion Club conference was held from September 2 to 5, 2005, under the title “Russia as a Political Kaleidoscope”.
Influential foreign and Russian politicians, political scientists, experts, and media figures discussed domestic politics, issues of economic growth, and relations between Russia and the CIS states.
The attendees included Michael Binyon, a leading journalist at The Times (UK); David Johnson, a senior fellow at the Center for Defense Information (US); Mark Bassin, professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (US); Timothy Colton, faculty Research Fellow and director of Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies (US); Thierry de Montbrial, Director General of the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI) (France); Georges Sokoloff, economist and historian (France), and many others.
The discussion sessions took place on two platforms – in Moscow and Tver. Meetings with figures from the Presidential Administration, the Government of the Russian Federation, members of the State Duma, and members of the Federation Council were arranged for the attendees. The conference culminated in a meeting with President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.
