From September 29 to October 2, 2025, Sochi will host the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club titled: “The Polycentric World: Instructions for Use.”
The Club’s flagship international conference will bring together 140 participants from 42 countries, including Algeria, Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela.
In previous years, Annual Meeting participants analysed the collapse of the world order, the end of Western hegemony, and the principles of the future world order as articulated by Russia’s President. This year’s discussions have focused on issues of personal and state security through the strengthening of sovereignty. At its Annual Meeting, the Club intends to build upon this trajectory by focusing on international cooperation in the new environment characteristic of the era of polycentricity, which the world has now definitively entered.
The topic of the 22nd Annual Meeting is “The Polycentric World: Instructions for Use.” The Valdai discussion organizers assume that polycentric – or multipolar – world does not presuppose stable principles and rules of conduct. It involves many more actors and determining factors than the systems of global governance to which we have become accustomed since the mid-20th century. That is why, in order to navigate it successfully, it is necessary to understand how to optimally avoid numerous risks, maintain the stability of each state and the entire international system, and not to miss the opportunities that arise despite threats and unpredictability.
The meeting’s themes will be further developed during the presentation of a specially commissioned Valdai report, titled “Dr. Chaos or: How to Stop Worrying and Love the Disorder” – a title alluding to Stanley Kubrick’s cult film. The report’s central hypothesis posits that the current global state is fundamentally stable, with states demonstrating a preference for adapting to complex, multidirectional changes over instigating a revolutionary transformation of the system of relations.
As part of the Annual Meeting, participants will traditionally meet with representatives of the Russian executive branch: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Maxim Oreshkin, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin. According to the organizers, the example of governing such a unique high-tech metropolis will add a crucial dimension to the entire spectrum of challenges facing the modern world.
The four-day meeting’s agenda includes the following events: an opening ceremony, the report presentation, nine thematic sessions, a special session, an open discussion, and a plenary session. Media access will be granted to designated sessions. In keeping with tradition, journalists will be able to conduct interviews with participants in all Valdai events on the side-lines of the forum.
In recent years, Valdai has been actively establishing contacts with research institutes around the world. In 2023, the Club signed a memorandum of understanding and cooperation with the Vivekananda International Foundation (India), and in 2024, it concluded partnership agreements with the Bait Al-Amanah Foundation (Malaysia), the Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research (Malaysia), and the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (Pakistan). This year, the Trends Research & Advisory (UAE) and Sasakawa Peace Foundation (Japan) became partners of the Club. Representatives of these and other partner organizations will come to Sochi to participate in the 22nd Annual Meeting.
This year, international participants include: Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr. (Brazil), Executive Director of the IMF (2007–2015) and Vice President of the New Development Bank (2015–2017); Richard Sakwa, Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of Kent (UK); Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, Senior Undersecretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, Deputy Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Syria (2014–2019) (Egypt); Arvind Gupta, Director of the Vivekananda International Foundation (India); B.K. Sharma, Director General of the United Services Institution (India); Kayhan Barzegar, Head of the Department of Political Science and International Relations, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University (Iran); Feng Shaolei, Director of the Centre for Russian Studies at East China Normal University (China); Pamela Yong, Chair of the Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research (Malaysia); Majid Ehsan, President of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (Pakistan); Rasigan Maharajh, Chief Director of the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation at Tshwane University of Technology (South Africa); and many others.
Russian participants include: Alexander Dynkin, President of IMEMO RAS; Sergei Karaganov, Academic Supervisor, Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at the HSE University; Vitaly Naumkin, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Oriental Studies; Irina Abramova, Director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for African Studies; Tigran Sargsyan, Vice Chairman of the Management Board of the Eurasian Development Bank; Natalia Tsvetkova, Acting Director of the Institute for the United States and Canada, RAS; Victoria Panova,Vice Rector of the HSE University, Sherpa of the Russian Federation in the W20; Anastasia Likhacheva, Dean of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at the HSE University; Andrey Sushentsov, Dean of the School of International Relations at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club; Fyodor Lukyanov, Research Director of the Valdai Discussion Club; Oleg Barabanov, Anton Bespalov, Timofei Bordachev, and Ivan Timofeev, Programme Directors of the Valdai Discussion Club.
Working languages of the meeting: Russian, English.
Information for the media: In order to get accredited for the event, please fill out the form on our web site. Accreditation closes on September 25 at 12:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3). If you have any questions about the event, please call +79269307763.
Links to the live broadcast of the discussion will be posted on all online platforms of the Valdai Club: on the website, X (formerly Twitter), VK, Telegram and Dzen.
