7-е заседание Международного дискуссионного клуба "Валдай"

RUSSIA: HISTORY AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
7th Valdai Club meeting, August 31 – September 7, 2010
St.Petersburg – Kizhi – Valaam, Moscow

The 7th Valdai Club Meeting, an expert forum for international specialists on Russia, titled “Russia: History and Future Development,” ran from August 31 through September 7.

The meeting was organized by RIA Novosti in collaboration with the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, the magazines Russia Profile.org and Russia in Global Affairs, and the newspaper The Moscow News.

The discussion brought together prominent experts on Russia from eight European countries, the United States, Canada, the Middle East and Asia. Reports were delivered by well known historians specializing in Russia, such as Richard Pipes, Hélène Carrère d’Encausse and Geoffrey Hosking, and others.
The main part of the conference took place on the route from St. Petersburg to the islands of Kizhi and Valaam, which are imbued with a special spirit of Russian history and spirituality. A genuine northern storm that broke out on Lake Onega prevented participants from getting to Valaam but did not impede their debates.

During the cruise aboard the ship Kronstadt they discussed the reasons behind the concentration of power in Russia, its experience of modernization, its geopolitical orientation in the modern world and relations with neighboring countries. During the three days, they heard a wide spectrum of views on Russia’s modern development and history.
After the debates, the members of the Valdai Club met with St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko, Director of the State Hermitage Museum Mikhail Piotrovsky, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov.

The session was crowned by a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Sochi. Participants gave Putin a report of their assessment of Russia’s development in 2009 and 2010, which reflected the common opinion of the leading world experts on Russia’s development – its political system, the economy, foreign policy, security, society, science and culture. The initial poll was conducted among twenty five participants in the session. They were leading experts on Russia from the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, China, Poland, Canada and Japan. They were asked to answer nine questions and give their estimate on Russia’s current condition on a scale from “minus 5” (major change for the worse) to “plus 5” (major change for the better). This assessment, launched at the club for the first time, was dubbed “the Valdai Index.”

During the session, club organizers presented the participants with far-reaching plans on how the program should be reformed. Apart from specialized mini-sessions on regional issues, which were introduced last year and the Valdai Index, the group decided to introduce a fixed membership, elect an international advisory board and eventually create a parallel foundation to raise money and fund specific research projects, to be published under the Valdai brand name. The annual conference will also be moved from September to June.

List of participants (PDF)

PROGRAM

Monday, August 30th / Tuesday, August 31st

Foreign participants arrive in St.Petersburg and lodge on board M/S "Kronshtadt"

Tuesday, August 31st

Russian participants arrive in St.Petersburg and lodge on board M/S "Kronshtadt"

Wednesday, September 1st

09:30-10:00 Opening remarks by Sergey Karaganov, chairman of the “Valdai” Club

10:00-12:15 am Session I. Roots of the historical trend of concentration of power in Russia: External threats, domestic developments, climate, territory, multiethnic and multicultural character of the country — and the need of a strong central power

Foreign co-chair: Angela Stent

Russian presenters: Lev Belousov, Alexander Arkhangelsky

Foreign presenters: Richard Pipes, Dominic Lieven

12:15-01:00 pm “Places we are cruising by”, lecture by Professor Anatoly Razumov

02:30-05:00 pm Session II. Russian experience of modernization and current attempt of a leap forward

Foreign co-chair: Sheng Shiliang

Russian presenters: Sergey Aleksashenko, Vladislav Inozemtsev

Foreign presenters: Robert Legvold, Piotr Dutkiewicz

08:30-09:30 pm “Russia in and outside Europe”. Lecture by Hélène Carrère d'Encausse.

Presentation of the book by Hélène Carrère d'Encausse “Russian Misfortune. Essay on Political Assassinations“ (in Russian). Presenter — Sergey Mironenko

Thursday, September 2nd

08:00 am Arrival to Kizhi island

08:00-11:00 am Walking tour of the island and the Open Air Museum of Wooden Architecture

11:00 am Departure from Kizhi to Valaam island

11:30 am-02:00 pm Session III. Russia and its neighbors: Ideal and feasible modes of interaction (Ukraine, Poland, Georgia, etc.)

Foreign co-chair: Alexander Rahr

Russian presenters: Vyacheslav Nikonov, Alexey Miller

Foreign presenters: Geoffrey Hosking, Adam Michnik

15:30-05:30 pm Session IV. Russia in Europe and Asia. New context of the geopolitical orientation: “Come on to Asia!” or “Back to the Union of Europe?”

Foreign co-chair: Toby Gati

Russian presenters: Vitaly Naumkin, Fyodor Lukyanov

Foreign presenters: Sheng Shiliang, Thomas Gomart

08:30-09:30 pm “Russia: Continuity of the history?” Lecture by Andrey Zubov.
Presentation of the book “Russian history: XX century“ (A.Zubov et al, in Russian). Presenter — Richard Pipes

Friday, September 3rd

09:30-12:30 am Session V. Russia and the World: Could Russia change as others want to see it? How Russia sees its future?

Foreign co-chair: Leszek Miller

Russian presenters: Kirill Rogov, Olga Krishtanovskaya

Foreign presenters: Charles Grant, Timothy Colton

02:00-03:30 pm Presentation of the Analytical Report by the Russian Group of the Valdai International Discussion Club ‘Towards a Union of Europe’. Presented by Sergei Karaganov

04:00 pm Arrival to Valaam island

05:00-08:00 pm Tour of the central quarters of the Spaso-Preobrazhenski (Holy Transfiguration) Valaam monastery. Boat tour from Nikonovsky bay to Monastyrsky bay and back

08:00 pm Departure from Valaam to St.Petersburg

08:30-10:00 pm Free discussion “Where to for the Valdai Club?” Chairs: Svetlana Mironyuk and Sergei Karaganov

Saturday, September 4th

09:00 am M/S "Kronshtadt" arrives to St.Petersburg

Russian participants:

10:30-12:30 am End of program in St.Petersburg; transfer to Moskovski Rail Terminal, departure to Moscow (“Sapsan” high speed train departing 01:00 pm)

Foreign participants:

09:30-12:30 am Transfer to Smolnyj

11:00-12:30 am Meeting with St.Petersburg Governor Valentina Matvienko

03:00-04:00 pm Meeting with Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the State Hermitage. Tour of the Hermitage.

Sunday, September 5th

11:30-12:30 am Transfer to Moskovski Rail Terminal, departure to Moscow (“Sapsan” high speed train departing 01:00 pm)

Monday, September 6th / Tuesday, September 7th

During the day Meetings with the top Russian officials

Wednesday, September 8th

Departure of the foreign participants

PARTICIPANTS

Canada

Piotr DUTKIEWICZ Professor and Director, Centre for Governance and Public Management, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada; former Director, Institute of European and Russian Studies

China

Shaolei FENG Dean, School of Advanced International and Area Studies, East China Normal University, Shanghai, P.R.C.; Director, Centre for Russian Studies

Shiliang SHENG Chief Researcher, Center for Global Challenges Studies, Xinhua News Agency (since 2005); Head, Russian sector, Institute for Social Development of Eurasia, Center for Development Research under the State Council of the People’s Republic of China (since 2001)

Guangcheng XING Deputy director, Center of China’s Borderland History and Geography Research, D. Sc. of Law

Czech Republic

Alexej KELIN Member of the Board, “Russian tradition” Society; member, editorial corporate staff, Russkoe Slovo journal; member, grant committee of the Czech Republic; member, NTS management committee; member of the Board, Czech/Moravian Slavonic association

France

Hélène CARRÈRE d’ENCAUSSE President, French Academy Historian and Political Scientist; foreignmember, Russian Academy of Sciences; former Professor of Russian History and Russian Politics in Sorbonne and Institut d’Etudes politiques

Arnaud DUBIEN Director of Russia and CIS Programmes, IRIS, Paris; regular consultant of the Quai d’Orsay and French MoD

Thomas GOMART Director of the Russia/NIS Center, French Institute of International Relations based in Paris and Brussels (IFRI); Editor, trilingual electronic collection Russie.Nei.Visions @ifri.org

Arnaud KALIKA Chief Editor, Confidential Newsletter Strategic Information TTU, specializing in issues geopolitics and military industries; lecturer, department for the study of organized crime, University of Paris II

Carole LANDRY Deputy Chief Editor for Europe and Africa, Agence France Presse (since 2010)

Christian MAKARIAN Deputy Editor, L’Express newsmagazine (since 1999)

Pierre ROUSSELIN Foreign Editor, Le Figaro (since 2004)

Piotr SMOLAR Reporter, foreign desk, Le Mond (since 2007)

Anne de TINGUY Tenured Professor, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales – INALCO (since 2005) and Sciences po, Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI). Member of the governing body of INALCO; Co-leader, CERI Transversal Project “Migrations and international relations”

Germany

Alexander RAHR Director, Russia and Eurasia Program, German Council on Foreign Relations, Berlin (since 1995)

Andreas RINKE Senior political correspondent, Reuters

Michael STUERMER Chief Correspondent, WELT-Gruppe

Andreas UMLAND DAAD Lecturer in Political Science, National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, Ukraine (since 2010)

Great Britain

Richard BEESTON Foreign Editor, The Times, London

Neil BUCKLEY Eastern Europe Editor, The Financial Times

Mary DEJEVSKY Chief editorial writer and columnist, The Independent; honorary fellow, University of Buckingham

Charles GRANT Founder director, Centre for European Reform, London

David HEARST Chief Foreign Leader The Guardian

Geoffrey HOSKING Emeritus Professor of Russian History, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London (since 2008)

Anatol LIEVEN Chair of international relations and terrorism studies, War Studies Department at King’s College London; senior fellow, New America Foundation, Washington DC

Dominic LIEVEN Professor of Russian History, London School of Economics; fellow, British Academ

John PEET European Editor, The Economist (since 2003)

Steve ROSENBERG BBC Diplomatic Correspondent

Lord SKIDELSKY Emeritus professor of political economy, Department of Economics, Warwick University

Hungary

Gabor STIER Foreign policy analyst, Head, Foreign Affairs Desk, Magyar Nemzet, Hungarian conservative daily newspaper (since 2000)

Iran

Jahangir KARAMI Assistant professor, faculty of World Studies, Department of Russian Studies, University of Tehran

Israel

Zvi MAGEN Research Fellow, Institute for National Security Studies, Tel Aviv University

Italy

Orietta MOSCATELLI Head, New Europe Desk and New Energy Project, Apcom News Agency, Italian partner for Associated Press

Bruno SERGI Professor, International Economics at the University, Messina; Principal Research Fellow and Member, Advisory Board, Centre for EMEA Banking, Finance and Economics, London Metropolitan Business School

Japan

Taisuke ABIRU Research Fellow, The Tokyo Foundation (TKFD), an independent, not-for-profit think tank of Japan; Head, “Energy Issues and Japanese Foreign Policy”; Project Member, “Eurasia Information Network” - project which conducts fixed-point observation and in-the-field analysis of conditions in individual Eurasian countries and issues that transect them.

Poland

Adam MICHNIK Editor-in-chief, Gazeta Wyborcza, the biggest daily in Poland; historian

Leszek MILLER Leader, Democratic Left Alliance, former Prime Minister of the government of the Republic of Poland (2001-2004)

Andrzej ROZENEK Deputy Editor-in-Chief, NIE (No) daily satire and political newspaper (since 2006); Deputy Chairman, Polish-German Club for Good Neighborliness

Russia

Sergey ALEKSASHENKO Director of Macroeconomic Research, Higher School of Economics; Member of the Board, JSC "Aeroflot – Russian airlines"; chairman, Committee by strategy (since 2008); member of the Board, JSC "UAC" (since June 2010)

Pavel ANDREEV Head of International Projects, Russian News and Information Agency “RIA Novosti”

Alexander ARKHANGELSKI Literary critic; historical essayist; documentary director; columnist, “RIA Novosti”; author and anchor, daily intellectual talk-show ‘Tem vremenem’ (‘Those Days’), ‘Culture’ channel’, which is dedicated to key issues of cultural and social life (since 2002); member, administrative council; Russian Booker literary prize; professor, Higher School of Economics (since 2006)

Andrey ARTIZOV Head of the Federal Archives Agency

Svetlana BABAEVA US Bureau Chief, Russian News and Information Agency “RIA Novosti” (since 2008)

Dmitry BABICH Political analyst, Russian News and Information Agency “RIA Novosti”

Alexander BABINSKY Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Russian News and Information Agency “RIA Novosti”

Alexander BELKIN Deputy Executive Director, Council of Foreign and Defense Policy (since 1994)

Lev BELOUSOV Head, European and American Modern and Contemporary History, History Department, Moscow State Lomonosov University; Deputy Chairman, Editorial Board, Russia in Global Affairs magazine

Christopher BOIAN Director of Foreign News Services, Russian News and Information Agency “RIA Novosti”

Timofei BORDACHEV Deputy-dean, School of International Affairs and World Economy; Director of Studies, Council on Foreign and Defense Policy (SVOP); Director, Center for International Studies, Faculty of International Economics and Politics, State University – Higher School of Economics, PhD (Politics)

Vladimir BULDAKOV Senior fellow, Russian History Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences; Editor-in-Chief, Soviet and Post-Soviet Review magazine, Leiden, the Netherlands; D.Sc. in History

Irina DEMCHENKO UK Bureau Chief, Russian News and Information Agency “RIA Novosti”

Viktor EROFEEV Prose writer, TV anchor

Leonid GRIGORIEV President, Institute for Energy and Finance (since 2004); senior researcher, Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), Russian Academy of sciences (since 1971); Dean, Management Department, International University, Moscow, professor; Chairman of the Board, WWF-Russia (since 2006)

Vladislav INOZEMTSEV Founder and Director, Centre for Post-Industrial Studies (since 1996); Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Svobodnaya Mysl monthly; columnist, Vedomosti daily

Sergei KARAGANOV Deputy Director, Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences; Dean, Department, World Economy and World Politics, State University – Higher School of Economics, Chairman, Presidium, Council for Foreign and Defense Policy (since 1994), Chairman, editorial board of Russia in Global Affairs magazine

Konstantin KHUDOLEY Pro-Rector for International Relations (since 2007), Dean, School of International Relations, St. Petersburg State University (since 1994)

Fyodor LUKYANOV Editor–in–Chief, Russia in Global Affairs magazine (since 2002)

Alexey MALASHENKO Member, Scientific Council, Carnegie Moscow Center; Professor, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) (since 2000)

Alexei MILLER Leading research-fellow, Institute for Scientific Information in Social Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (since 1999); professor, Chair of Post-Soviet Countries; Russian State University for Humanities, Moscow (since 2008); recurrent visiting professor, Central European University (Budapest), Department of History (since 1993)

Sergey MIRONENKO Director, Russian State Archives; Professor of X1X-th and early XX-th Century History, History Department, Moscow State University; D.Sc. in History

Svetlana MIRONYUK Editor-in-Chief, Russian News and Information Agency “RIA Novosti” (since 2006)

Aleksey MUHIN Director-General, Center for Political Information

Vitaly NAUMKIN Director, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences (since 2009); Ph.D in History, Doctor of Science, Professor

Vyacheslav NIKONOV CEO of the “Russkiy Mir” Foundation; President, ‘Unity for Russia’ Foundation; Dean of History and Political Science, International University in Moscow; Editor-in-Chief, Russia’s Strategy; Deputy Chairman, Editorial Board, Russia in Global Affairs; President, ‘Club - 93’; Member of the Board, Council on Foreign and Defense Policy; Vice-President, Association of Political Consultancy Centers; Member of the Board, Russian Public Policy Center; Member, Advisory Council of Carnegie Endowment (Moscow Branch)

Ella PAMFILOVA Russian politician; former Chair, Civil Society Institution and Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation (2002-2010)

Alexander PROKHANOV Prose writer; Editor-in-Chief, Zavtra newspaper

Anatoly RAZUMOV Senior researcher, Department of Bibliography and Local Studies, Director, Center for Recovered Names, National Library of Russia, St Petersburg

Kirill ROGOV Leading research fellow, Gaidar Institute of economic policy

Vladimir RYZHKOV Professor of High School Economy (Moscow), Russian independent politician, Russian State Duma member (1993-2007)

Alexander SAGOMONYAN Head, Theory and History of International Relations Department, Moscow State Linguistic University (MSLU) (since 1999)

Denis SEKIRINSKY PhD in History; senior research fellow, Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences; secretary, National Committee of the Russian Historians; CEO, Academic Educational Association for the Humanities

Sergey STARTSEV Bureau Chief, Russian News and information agency “RIA Novosti” in Italy (since 2004)

Dmitry SUSLOV Deputy Director for Research, Council on Foreign and Defense Policy; Deputy Director, Center of European and International Studies, State University – Higher School of Economics

Tim WALL Editor-in-Chief, The Moscow News

Andrey ZOLOTOV Editor-in-Chief, Russia Profile; Deputy Director, International Service, Russian News and Information Agency “RIA Novosti”

Andrey ZUBOV Professor of Philosophy, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, D.Sc. in History

Slovakia

Jan CARNOGURSKY Lawyer, advocate in Bratislava, Former Deputy Prime Minister, Czechoslovakia and former Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic

Turkey

Sinan OGAN Founder and President, Center of International Relations and Strategic Analysis - TURKSAM (since 2004)

Ukraine

Mikhail POGREBINSKY Director, Kiev Center for Political and Conflict Studies (since 1993)

USA

Samuel CHARAP Associate Director for Russia and Eurasia; Fellow, National Security and International Policy Program, Center for American Progress

Timothy COLTON Professor and Chairman, Department of Government, Harvard University; previously Director, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University; co-chair of a working group on Russian-American relations

Stephen FIDLER Brussels Editor, The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires (since 2009); Consulting Senior Fellow, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London

Toby GATI Senior International Advisor, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Washington, DC

Fiona HILL Senior Fellow and Director, Center on the United States and Europe, the Brookings Institution (since 2009)

Andrew KUCHINS Director and Senior Fellow, Russia & Eurasia Program, Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS); lecturer, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)

Clifford KUPCHAN Research Director, Eurasia Group

Robert LEGVOLD Director, The Euro-Atlantic Security Initiative; Project Director, ‘Rethinking U.S. Policy toward Russia,’ The American Academy of Arts & Sciences; Marshall D. Shulman Professor, Columbia University; Director of Soviet Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

Andranik MIGRANYAN Director, the New York City Branch, Institute for Democracy and Cooperation (since 2008)

Richard PIPES Professor of History, Emeritus, Harvard

Angela STENT Director, Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies and Professor of Government and Foreign Service, Georgetown University; Senior Fellow (non-resident), Brookings Institution and co-chairs its Hewett Forum on Post-Soviet Affairs

Nikolai ZLOBIN Senior Fellow and Director of Russian and Asian Programs, World Security Institute, USA (since 2006)