Valdai Discussion Club
From September 10-14, Karen Dawisha, Director of the Havighurst Center for Russian & Post-Soviet Studies, was one of 70 political scientists, experts and well-known journalists from Russia, the United States, the U.K., Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Slovakia, Austria, Japan, China, Brazil, and Canada invited to participate in the 4th Annual Valdai Discussion Club. The Valdai Club, organized by RIA Novosti in concert with the Council on foreign and defense policy, as well as The Moscow Times, Russia in Global Affairs, and Russia Profile, unites leading political scientists, Russian experts, and heads of major foreign policy and research centers.
The Discussion, “Russia at the Crossroads: the Search for Self-Identity,” was held on the eve of the 2007 parliamentary elections and the 2008 presidential race, widely discussed by experts and politicians in Russia and abroad. The venues this year were Moscow and Kazan, where the participants took part in a program of meetings, discussions and cultural events. The guests were received by President of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiyev and met with President Vladimir Putin
September 12: by Oleg Morozov, first deputy chair of the Russian State Duma (in Russian)
September 12: Speech by Sergei Ivanov, Acting First Deputy Prime Minister (in English)
September 14: Speech by President Putin at Sochi (in Russian) ()
of Putin's Welcome to Valdai Discussion Club
(PowerPoint)