The report claims to reflect the combined opinion of the world’s leading experts on current Russian trends. Twenty-five top Russia specialists from the U.S., UK, Germany, France, Italy, China, Poland, Canada and Japan answered nine questions and gave their ratings on a ten-point scale, the website of the Valdai Club reports.
The results highlighted a marked tendency toward stagnation, primarily in terms of Russia’s economic, scientific, and broader social development. The experts polled believe that these areas have not changed at all over the past year and a half. While the economy may be showing signs of a modest recovery, they say, there is essentially no real modernization, restructuring or diversification. Oil and gas are still the main revenue generators, corruption is rampant and there is almost zero innovation. The experts said they could envisage this situation continuing for another 10-15 years, and that it would be inevitably regressive, the club participants say.
The Valdai Discussion Club provides a global forum for leading experts on Russia to engage in a sustained dialogue about the country’s political, economic, social and cultural development. The main part of this year’s club summit was a trip with the ship Kronstadt from Sankt Petersburg to the great lakes of the Republic of Karelia.
