Russian, foreign members of Valdai discussion club to meet in Sochi

SOCHI, October 20. /TASS/. Problems of war and peace are destined to become the centerpieces of discussions at the 12th session of the Valdai International Discussion Club that begins in Sochi on Tuesday. The motto of the meeting is "War and Peace: Man, State and the Threat of a Major Conflict in the 21st Century," Alexei Mukhin, the director of the Center for Political Information said. "The discussion will most likely center around the situation the world found itself in after an apparent informational conflict had broken out among several countries," he said. "It is important to consider the rules, to figure out the possible scenarios of future events and to bring out the patterns of extricating ourselves from this quagmire with minimal losses." "It is clear as daylight now there's no escaping losses," Mukhin said adding the prime attention at the conference would be given to developments in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Yaroslav Kuzminov, the vice-president of the Moscow Supreme School of Economics said the club members would give special focus to the markets of education, science and culture, which unite different countries in spite of political and economic conflicts. "There are things that make it possible to keep up dialogue even amid a tough confrontation of interests because people remain interested in one another despite the divisions and splits existing between their nations," he said. The meeting will have four sections -- 'Does the world need war?', 'Collision of realities in the epoch of total communications', 'The problems of economy in the globally interdependent world', and 'Diplomacy in the 21st century'. Andrei Bystritsky, the chairman of the Council at the Fund for the Valdai Club Development said earlier the participants hoped for a conference with President Vladimir Putin. "We hope Russian and foreign scholars will take part in the discussions," he said. "Also, we hope to see Sergei Ivanov, Igor Shuvalov, Sergei Lavrov, and Dmitry Peskov," he said. All in all, the organizes hope to host some 130 participants, including almost 90 foreign experts from 62 countries and more than 40 Russian experts. The Valdai International Discussion Club was set up in 2004. Over the eleven years that have elapsed since then, it has brought together more than 900 representatives of the global scholar community. Participants in the sessions traditionally meet with the Russian President and other top-rank officials. Read more