On November 20 at 16:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3), the Valdai Club will host an expert discussion, titled “A New Dream? Elections in Moldova and Georgia as a Marker on the Road to Sovereignty”.
The recent presidential elections in Moldova and parliamentary elections in Georgia have become an important marker of the transformation that has begun in the post-Soviet countries. The Georgian Dream party won the parliamentary elections in Georgia. In Moldova, voters actively voted for the opposition candidate Alexandru Stoianoglo, and only the votes of the Moldovan diaspora in the West decided the fate of the presidential elections in favour of Maia Sandu.
For several decades, the socio-political process in Moldova and Georgia, as in many countries of Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia, has been significantly influenced by the dream of European integration. The political elites of these countries believed that integration with the European Union and NATO and expansion of ties with the United States would allow them to solve their domestic political, economic and social problems, but consistent efforts to get closer to the West have yielded limited results.
With the start of the special military operation in Ukraine and the subsequent large-scale introduction of anti-Russia sanctions, some post-Soviet states assumed the role of intermediaries, ensuring foreign trade and financial ties with Western countries. The benefits of cooperation with Russia have obviously begun to outweigh the prospects of a pro-Western course.
How can we define the new political reality in Moldova and Georgia? What will be their development vector and interaction with Russia? What, in addition to solving socio-economic problems, influences the foreign policy trends of the post-Soviet countries today? The participants in the discussion will try to answer these and other questions.
Speakers:
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Richard Sakwa, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, University of Kent (UK)
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Archil Sikharulidze, political scientist, founder of the Sikha Foundation (Georgia)
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Vyacheslav Sutyrin, Director of the Centre for Scientific Diplomacy and Advanced Academic Initiatives, MGIMO
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Constantin Starîş, Member of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova; Secretary of the Parliamentary Commission on Security, Defence and Law and Order (Moldova)
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Natalia Kharitonova, Professor, Department of International Security and Foreign Policy of Russia, RANEPA
Moderator:
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Andrey Sushentsov, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club
Working languages: Russian, English.
Information for the media: In order to get accredited for the event, please fill out the form on our web site. 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.
