The 6th meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club. September 7-15, 2009.
The meeting was organized by the Russian News & Information Agency RIA Novosti in conjunction with the Council for External and Defense Policy, the newspaper Moscow News and magazines Russia Profile and Russia in Global Affairs, was held on September 7-15, 2009.
Respected political scientists, experts and journalists from Russia, the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Japan, China, India and Iran attended the debates held in Yakutsk, capital of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in the Russian Far East, and on board two steamships that cruised the Siberian River Lena.
They met with Sakha Vice President Yevgenia Mikhailova, Sakha Prime Minister Yegor Borisov and Sergei Ulin, vice president of diamond miner Alrosa.
In Moscow the club participants met with President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko and presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich.
They also took part in an international conference, “Modern State and Global Security,” in Yaroslavl.
Discussions attended by politicians and political scientists who hold different views, as well as meetings with high-ranking Russian officials once again provided Western analysts and journalists with objective information about developments in Russia and Moscow’s stand on the key international issues.
