The Valdai Discussion Club is to hold its Third Youth Conference in St. Petersburg from May 31 to June 1. This year, it will bring together over 30 participants of the Valdai—New Generation Project, including Russian and international experts, young professionals, postgraduate students, and graduates of leading universities in international relations from Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Italy, the Republic of Korea, Russia, and Turkey. The event will be held at the Corinthia Hotel (57 Nevsky Prospekt, St. Petersburg).
The Third Youth Conference opens a broader Valdai Club programme running from May 31 to June 4 in St. Petersburg, aimed at fostering discussion on the challenges of intensifying interstate rivalry and the search for opportunities for cooperation in a multipolar world. The programme also includes the Valdai Expert Dialogue (June 2) and the traditional Valdai session at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2026, June 4).
The Valdai—New Generation Project was launched in March 2024 at the World Youth Festival in Sochi, where the first Valdai Club Youth Conference was held. Over the past two years, the project has brought together young researchers from 15 countries. Its goal is to build a global community of young experts who embrace their responsibility for the future, remain unbiased, strive for the utmost objectivity in their academic work, and are prepared to find fresh answers to the key questions on the international agenda. A team of young authors from various countries prepared the Valdai Report “Beyond the Pattern: The World of Real Multipolarity” specifically for the Third Youth Conference. The report offers a panoramic overview of how the modern world is evolving and the trends that will shape its near future.
The agenda of the Third Youth Conference, based on the report, reflects the views of the younger generation of Valdai experts on the trends and challenges of a multipolar world. These young researchers view real multipolarity not as a goal, but as a process dependent on the new centres of power realizing their growing responsibility for the future world order.
The Youth Conference will last two days. The programme includes five thematic sessions, a summary, and a presentation of the report.
During the sessions, experts will discuss the following topics:
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Major Regions in the Context of the Globalisation Crisis;
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Economic Geopolitics: Between Sanctions and Cooperation;
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Multipolarity and the Global Military-Political Landscape;
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The Global South and Development Challenges;
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Ideologies, Values, and Identity.
The media-friendly portion of the Valdai Youth Conference will take place on June 1 and will include a presentation of a report prepared by the Valdai—New Generation Project participants and a conference summary. Events begin at 11:00.
The conference will feature renowned Valdai experts: Yana Leksyutina, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Professor at St. Petersburg State University; Stanislav Tkachenko, Professor of the Department of European Studies at St. Petersburg State University; Fyodor Lukyanov, Research Director of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club; Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club; Timofei Bordachev, Professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics and Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club, and others.
Working languages: Russian, English
Information for the media: In order to get accredited for the event, please fill out the form on our website. Accreditation closes on at 16:00 Moscow Time (GMT+3) on May 29. 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.
