4th annual conference of the Middle East Dialogue of the Valdai International Discussion Club, titled “Islam in Politics: Ideology or Pragmatism?”, will take place in Marrakesh, Morocco, on May 14-15.
Issues of commonalities and differences in the Muslim communities of Russia and Canada, as well as problems of their integration into the legal frameworks of their respective countries, were the main topics of discussion at the conference Muslims in Russia, the CIS, and Canada: Cohabitation and Cooperation
The conference Muslims in Russia, the CIS, and Canada: Cohabitation and Cooperation presented by Carleton’ Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, the Department of Political Science, the Carleton Centre for the Study of Islam, and the Valdai Discussion Club is to be held on March 8, 2013 at the Carleton University, Ottawa.
The analytical report “Russia’s Economy: after Transformation, before Modernization” was prepared after discussions at the Valdai Discussion Club Summit held on October 21–22, 2012. The report incorporates many of the conclusions on Russia’s political development contained in the 2011 Valdai report “Russia Should Not Miss Its Chance: Development Scenarios”.
The Russia Development Index (Valdai Index) reflects the combined opinion of the world's leading experts on Russia as regards Russia’s political, economic, social, cultural and international performance. The annual poll aims to study changes in Russia’s development trends over a year. It is important that respondents assess not the current situation, but changes.
The analytical report “Military Reform: Toward the New Look of the Russian Army” summarizes the results of the conference of the Valdai Discussion Club Defense and Security section titled “Modernization of Russia’s Armed Forces and Cooperation in International Security” which was held on May 25-27, 2011 in Moscow.
04/24/201309:53 Nobody has called Alexei Navalny a strong politician as of yet. He is an interesting public figure and sometimes implements very successful initiatives. He made a successful attack on United Russia that became rather famous because he timed the attack with the weakening of the government. However, he became indecisive and largely lost his advantageous position each time after achieving success in such attacks.
09/13/201212:40 A mood of protest began to build up in society, particularly among the middle class. At the same time, a portion of the Western-oriented forces placed their bets on splitting the Medvedev-Putin tandem, hoping that Medvedev would revolt against Putin, thus toppling the existing political set-up.
06/29/201212:51 It is difficult to split the opposition any further. It has demonstrated a complete inability to come to terms. Navalny’s work for Aeroflot can’t deepen the rift between the opposition leaders because their political, economic and even philosophical views are already poles apart.
04/25/201210:37 Participants in the rallies on Bolotnaya Square and other places in Moscow and other cities signed the united opposition program. Not a single item of this program has been implemented. Of course, the authorities announced that the elections of governors will be introduced as well as political plurality, but so far we have seen nothing else but imitation of a genuine political process.
04/24/201210:31 The drive for power might be the predominant motive in the struggle for leadership of the protests at the moment, though the major point today is whether the leaders can gather enough societal support and to what extent they can go beyond current “rally politics”.
04/23/201212:48 Alexei Navalny emerged as a new and alternative voice of the internet generation, and of the angry urban citizens of Russia. By focusing on corruption, he brought to the fore the pent-up frustration of the Russian middle class, with shoddy police work, corrupt officials, problematic interethnic relations.
04/13/201210:29 The contemporary protest movement is far less tied to the political personas of particular leaders than past movements. There is no common platform or organization for this opposition movement, a fact which reduces the danger that it will be captured by demagogues but which also makes it difficult for it to enter into dialogue with the authorities.
