The Valdai International Discussion Club held its eighth annual conference in the Kaluga Region and Moscow on November 7-11. The theme of the conference was “The 2011-2012 Elections and the Future of Russia: Development Scenarios for the Next 5-8 Years.”
About a hundred of Russian and foreign experts discussed Russia’s potential course in the face of growing instability in global politics and the world economy. Conference participants reviewed political and economic trends in Russia that may influence its development in the medium term. They also considered scenarios in which existing trends could manifest themselves.
A special session was devoted to the “optimal scenario”, which involved political evolution in the form of new institutions, political pluralism, new and younger elites, and increased social mobility; as well as economic renewal, i.e. completing the privatization process, improving the investment climate, and attracting foreign capital.
Among the leading experts and political scientists at the conference were Valdai Club members and first-time guests from 14 countries, including the United States, China, and Western and Eastern European states.
Speakers included world famous scholars and analysts, such as Timothy Colton, chair of the Department of Government at Harvard University and former director of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies; Alexander Rahr, director of the Berthold Beitz Center Program at the German Council on Foreign Relations; and Anatol Lieven, professor at the Department of War Studies and director of research on terrorism and international relations at King’s College London.
Russia will be represented by major political scientists, economists and historians, such as Olga Kryshtanovskaya, general director of the Institute of Applied Politics; Vitaly Tretyakov, producer and host of the TV program “What is to be done? Philosophical conversations”; Gleb Pavlovsky, president of the Foundation for Effective Politics (FEP); and Vladislav Inozemtsev, founder and director of research at the Center for Post-Industrial Studies.
The conference took place in the Kaluga Region, a leading investment destination in Russia and home to research and technical hubs like Obninsk, a large number of research institutions, and the Grabtsevo industrial park, which includes some of the country’s most high-tech joint ventures, including a major automotive plant.
RIA Novosti established the Valdai Club together with the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, The Moscow News newspaper and the magazines Russia in Global Affairs and Russia Profile in 2004. The club was named Valdai after the site of its first meeting. Its mission is to foster dialogue between Russian and foreign scholars, politicians and journalists and to analyze political, economic and social processes in Russia and the rest of the world. Its meetings both in Russia and abroad bring together dozens of political scientists from various countries. During its eight-year history, more than 400 representatives of the international academic community from 36 countries have taken part in its work.
