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IMEMO delegation led by Director of the Institute Feodor Voitolovsky took part on December 17 – 18, 2024, in the regular session of the International Dialog Platform “Baltic Platform”, dedicated to the issues of humanitarian cooperation and restoration of social and cultural ties in conditions of confrontation. The session was held at St. Petersburg State University (SPbSU).

Presentations were made by the employees of the Baltic Sea Region Integrated Research Group – Head of the Group Dmitry Ofitserov-Belsky and Senior Researches Igor Zhukovsky and Maria Pavlova. The conference was attended by representatives of the scientific and expert community and public circles of Russia, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Great Britain, France, Italy, Indonesia, and a number of other countries. The session was devoted to the problems of interaction in the field of science, education, culture and environmental protection in the Baltic Sea region, as well as in neighboring regions. 

Feodor Voitolovsky, Director of IMEMO, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, moderated the first section of the conference “Humanitarian Dialogue between East and West in the Conditions of Global Turbulence”.

Dmitry Ofitserov-Belsky, Head of the Baltic Sea Region Integrated Research Group, in his report “Opportunities and Limitations of Communication: Current Status and Prospects” examined the problem through the prism of socio-philosophical ideas of Jacques Derrida and Jean Baudrillard. According to Dmitry Ofitserov-Belsky, the EU countries' refusal to engage in dialogue with Russia is caused by the desire to form an ideologized picture of the world that replaces the true reality of international economic and social relations. The desire for self-deception is combined with the unwillingness, first of all, of European countries to formulate new meanings for the development of both the Baltic region and Europe as a whole; the desire to prioritize the superiority of values rather than the pragmatism of peaceful coexistence leads to the aggravation of relations in the political and military spheres. Restrictions are becoming more and more common in relations not only with Russia, the EU is losing influence around the world. Although international dialog does not help to prevent conflicts, it is critically necessary to understand the intentions of the parties and reduce the risks – argues Dmitry Ofitserov-Belsky. According to him, public diplomacy and humanitarian dialog are able to fulfill their functions even in conditions of prolonged political confrontation, as the experience of the Cold War demonstrates.

Igor Zhukovsky suggested that intellectual circles in Russia and Europe should now focus their attention on describing the post-conflict model of co-development in the Baltic region. This is still possible, given the experience accumulated in all countries of the region in building cooperative networks – at the level of business and civil society structures, scientific and expert and cultural communities. These interest groups still have direct ties at the level of academic and public projects and initiatives of bilateral and multilateral nature. He also noted the existence of common interests of the states in the sphere of ecology of neighboring regions, connectivity in the sphere of transportation and logistics. Igor Zhukovsky called for a dialog in the categories of not confrontation and a new “cold war”, but to search for ways to restore cooperation and establish a “cool peace” after the conflict in Ukraine.

Maria Pavlova made a report on the problems of destruction and rethinking of the Soviet heritage in the Baltic countries. Modern theoretical approaches to dealing with dissonant heritage were considered, and examples of attempts to rethink Soviet monuments in Lithuania and Latvia were presented. Both positive examples of monument preservation and negative approaches of the governments of the Baltic region countries initiating “wars of memory” despite the tolerant attitude of the local population to Soviet and Russian monuments were given.

The conference was also actively attended by representatives of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences – Lead Researcher Alexander Kotov and Junior Research Fellow Maria Tunik.

The main partners of the “Baltic Platform” in Russia are IMEMO, the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg State University, MGIMO University, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, and Yaroslav the Wise Novgorod State University. Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University.