On October 18–21, 2021, Sochi hosts the 18th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, titled “Global Shake-Up in the 21st Century: The Individual, Values, and the State”. The topic of the third session, which took place on October 19, 2021, was “A Closed Society and Its Friends. Who Needs Freedom and Why?”. Alexander Filippov, Professor, Faculty of Humanities, Head of the Centre for Fundamental Sociology, National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE); Arvind Gupta, Co-Founder, Digital India Foundation (India); Ivan Krastev, Chairman, Centre for Liberal Strategies (Bulgaria); Permanent Fellow, Institute for Human Sciences (Austria); Kubatbek Rakhimov, CEO, Public Foundation “Applicata - Center for Strategic Solutions”; Former Adviser to the Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic (2019-2020) (Kyrgyzstan); Xu Sitao, Chief Economist, Partner of Deloitte China (China), participated. The session was moderated by Yana Leksyutina, Professor, School of International Relations, Saint-Petersburg State University.