Valdai Club

2026

Eurasian Perspective

Timofei Bordachev

Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club; Academic Supervisor of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE)

The Eurasian Perspective programme examines the present and future of the planet’s largest region in all its diversity: from military and political issues to economic development and transport connectivity, from education and culture to the development of cutting-edge technologies and multilateral cooperation. The Greater Eurasian space unites dozens of states and a number of interstate associations, each operating according to its own rules and independently charting a unique path to the future. Most states in Greater Eurasia have their own development priorities and worldviews, but they share a common desire to ensure stability and mutually beneficial cooperation. This cooperation is underpinned by organizing principles such as the impossibility of a rigid hierarchy, maximum equality among participants, and openness to the outside world.

The practical objectives of the Eurasian Perspective programme include supporting broad expert dialogue, creating new discussion platforms for emerging problems and opportunities, and promptly addressing the most pressing challenges of regional significance. The programme strengthens existing and creates new expert partnerships and research areas that have become flagships of the Valdai Club over the past 10 years, while strengthening interactions with leading researchers and think tanks in Eurasia and around the world.

This programme is a continuation of last year’s programme “Eurasia’s Future.”

Opinions

Central Asia 2026: From Great-Power Prize to Geostrategic Platform

In 2025, Central Asia began to look less like a blank space on someone else’s map and more like a calendar no outside power could ignore. In the span of months, the region hosted and attended a parade of summits: the first EU–Central Asia leaders’ meeting in Samarkand in April, the second China–Central Asia summit in Astana in June, a Russia–Central Asia summit in Dushanbe in October, and a US-hosted Central Asia summit in Washington in November. Add Tokyo’s first “Central Asia + Japan” leaders’ meeting in December and the diplomatic runway toward a first Korea–Central Asia summit in Seoul in 2026, and the old vocabulary—“backyard,” “buffer,” “landlocked”—starts to sound like a coping mechanism for analysts who missed the tempo change.

Greater Eurasia and its Western Neighbours

As the US asserts dominance over the EU with increasing intensity, tensions between the two powers are unlikely to provoke a breakdown in the Western alliance, writes Timofei Bordachev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club.

Timofei Bordachev

Without War and Peace: The Post-Conflict Development of the South Caucasus

Watching the developments in the South Caucasus, we see a picture that seems paradoxical by all previous standards of our understanding of the nature of international relations: rather than overcoming political barriers, numerous economic partnerships have adapted to them, entrenching existing fault lines. Since powerful external forces are involved in these partnerships, the regional conflict is projected onto the global level, becoming an element of a larger geopolitical competition.

Rimma Mkrtchyan

European Political Architecture: Dynamics and Prospects

Given the direction of world politics and recent events, institutions like the EU and NATO are increasingly losing influence, and if the US were to truly disengage from Europe, the future awaiting European countries could be brighter than imagined, writes Christian Baldi. The author is a participant in the Valdai – New Generation project.

Christian Baldi