Yaroslavl Global Policy Forum
Formation2009
TypeForum
HeadquartersYaroslavl

Yaroslavl Global Policy Forum was a series of high-level conferences organized in Yaroslavl, Russia, during the term of Dmitry Medvedev as President of the Russian Federation.[1] The forum, which targeted foreign experts, was established in 2009 by Medvedev, who determined that Valdai Discussion Club was too closely linked to Vladimir Putin.[2] The Yaroslavl Forum was organized around Medvedev's birthday, which occurred around the same time as Putin's Valdai conference.[3]

Medvedev gave significant speeches at the forum, including a speech at the September 2010 forum (entitled "The Modern State: Standards of Democracy and Criteria of Efficiency"),[4] in which Medvedev "told a large audience of academics, politicians, and economists ... that parliamentary democracy would provide a 'catastrophe' for Russia" by leading to social upheaval and turmoil.[5] Among the notable persons who attended the forums were Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and American Nobel laureate economic Paul Krugman,[1] and Michael McFaul.[6] The conferences were "largely presented as the Russian equivalent of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos."[1] However, as Medvedev's influence waned, the Global Policy Forum "soon exhausted its potential ... and became nearly forgotten."[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Vladimir Gel'man, Dmitry Travin & Otar Marganiya, Reexamining Economic and Political Reforms in Russia, 1985–2000: Generations, Ideas, and Change (Lexington Books, 2014), p. 116.
  2. ^ Angus Roxburgh, The Strongman: Vladimir Putin and the Struggle for Russia (2nd ed.: I.B.Tauris, 2013), p. 193.
  3. ^ Nobuo Shimotomai, "Politics of Dictatorship and Pluralism" in Japanese and Russian Politics: Polar Opposites or Something in Common? (ed. Takashi Inoguchi: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), p. 79.
  4. ^ Mark Kesselman, Joel Krieger & William A. Joseph, Introduction to Comparative Politics: Political Challenges and Changing Agendas (brief 2nd ed.: Wadsworth, 2013), p. 431.
  5. ^ J. L. Black, The Russian Presidency of Dmitry Medvedev, 2008-2012: The Next Step Forward or Merely a Time Out? (Routledge, 2015), p. 67.
  6. ^ Adrian Pabst, "The Civil State: An Alternative Model of Democracy and Modernization" in Democracy versus Modernization: A Dilemma for Russia and for the World (eds. Vladislav Inozemtsev & Piotr Dutkiewicz: Routledge, 2013), p. 195.
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