Institute of World Economy and International Relations

May 30. IMEMO Conference-Hall.

Conference Program.

Welcoming Address: Academician N.A.Simonia.

Main reports:
Dr. K.G.Kholodkovsky – “G.G.Diligensky on Post-Soviet Transformations”.
Prof. N.V.Zagladin – “The Results of the 20 years of reforms and Prospects for Russia’s Social and Political Development”.

Discussion:

1. Dynamics of transformations for past 20 years. (What kind of cross-roads has Russian society passed by during that period? Have there been any real alternatives and lost opportunities? What is the correlation between social, socio-political and socio-psychological factors?)
2. The results of transformations in socio-economic and socio-psychological spheres. (Have institutional transformations turned Russia into a market economy? What impedes the transition from amorphous society to society with clearly differentiated social and class interests? Are class confrontations likely to take place in the foreseeable future? Is the search for a new national identity successful?)
3. Socio-political development of Russia: forecasts and realities. (Why, for the past 20 years, has the country failed to form a stable party system? What factors are responsible for the absence of a mass social-democratic party in Russia? Civil society in the late 80s, mid 90s and in resent years: is it climbing downwards or upwards, or stagnating?)
4. Power and society: from Perestroika to “controlled democracy”. (Vector of development: from Gorbachev’s democratization to Yeltsin’s “oligarchic regime” and Putin’s authoritarianism? What is the resource potential of the existing socio-political system? Is there an alternative to “controlled democracy” in circumstances where civil society is very weak and economy criminalized?)
5. Russia in the globalizing world. (Evolution trends in Russia’s foreign policy: from “new thinking” to “the war of civilizations”? Russian society and western democracy: the problem of mutual confidence. What can Russia look forward to in the globalized information society?

Closing remarks: the future of Russia.