The Valdai Discussion Club is a Moscow-based
think tank
A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...
and discussion forum. It was established in 2004 and is named after
Lake Valdai, which is located close to
Veliky Novgorod
Veliky Novgorod ( ; , ; ), also known simply as Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, being first mentioned in the 9th century. The city lies along the ...
, where the Club’s first meeting took place. In 2014, the management of the Club was transferred to the Valdai Club Foundation, established in 2011 by the Council on Foreign and Defence Policy, the
Russian International Affairs Council,
Moscow State Institute of International Relations
Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) (, also known as MGIMO University) is an higher education, institute of higher education located in Moscow, Russia. The institute is run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia), Russian ...
, and the
Higher School of Economics
HSE University (), officially the National Research University Higher School of Economics () is a public research university founded in 1992 and headquartered in Moscow, Russia. Along with its main campus located in the capital, the university ...
.
Overview
The 2004 Valdai conference was attended by Russian President
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...
.
Among many other Russian Government officials attending Valdai meetings are
Dmitry Medvedev
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev (born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician and lawyer who has served as Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020. Medvedev was also President of Russia between 2008 and 2012 and Prime Mini ...
, former Prime Minister and former President;
Sergey Ivanov, former Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office;
Sergey Lavrov
Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov (, ; born 21 March 1950) is a Russian diplomat who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (Russia), Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2004. He is the longest-serving Russian foreign minister since Andrei Gromyko d ...
, Minister of Foreign Affairs;
Sergey Shoygu
Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu; , . (born 21 May 1955) is a Russian politician and military officer who has served as Secretary of the Security Council of Russia, secretary of the Security Council of Russia, Security Council since 2024. He served ...
, former Minister of Defence.
The Club also operates regional programmes – Asian, Mid-Eastern and Euro-Atlantic Dialogues. It holds a special session at the
St. Petersburg International Economic Forum
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF; ) is an annual Russian business event for the economic sector, which has been held in Saint Petersburg, St. Petersburg since 1997, and under the auspices of the President of Russia since 2 ...
and the
Eastern Economic Forum
Eastern Economic Forum ( or ВЭФ) is an international forum held each year in Vladivostok, Russia, for the purpose of encouraging foreign investment in the Russian Far East.
It is held each year since 2015 in September, at the Far Eastern Fe ...
.
Stanislav Zas, Secretary-General of the
Collective Security Treaty Organization
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO, ) is an Intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia consisting of six post-Soviet states: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. Th ...
spoke at Valdai in February 2022.
Daniel W. Drezner, professor of international politics at the
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is the graduate school of international affairs of Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. Fletcher is one of America's oldest graduate schools of international relations. As of 2017, the student bo ...
at
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...
, described Valdai as "a swanky high-level conference put on by the Russian elite" and "the highest-profile Russian equivalent to
Davos
Davos (, ; or ; ; Old ) is an Alpine resort town and municipality in the Prättigau/Davos Region in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of (). Davos is located on the river Landwasser, in the Rhaetian ...
(minus the corporate presence)".
Drezner also wrote that the chief value to attendees is the ability to determine the official line of the Russian government, although attendance also risks "greater legitimacy on a government that has been accused of some less-than-legitimate activities as of late."
Nikolay Petrov of the
Carnegie Moscow Center
The Carnegie Moscow Center () was a Moscow-based think tank that focuses on domestic and foreign policy. It was established in 1994 as a regional affiliate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. It was the number one think tank in Cen ...
identified Valdai as "a project used as blatant
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...
by the Kremlin" while Russian sociologist
Lilia Shevtsova
Lilia Fyodorovna Shevtsova (; born 7 October 1949 in Lviv, Ukrainian SSR) is a Kremlinology expert.
Biography
Shevtsova received B.A. and M.A. in history and journalism from Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1971. She also r ...
criticized the Valdai conferences in an article entitled "Putin's
Useful Idiots." Marcel H. Van Herpen wrote that Valdai was a
soft power
In politics (and particularly in international politics), soft power is the ability to co-option, co-opt rather than coerce (in contrast with hard power). It involves shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. Soft power is ...
effort by the Kremlin in service of Russian foreign policy goals, with Russian leadership using the conference in a bid to gain goodwill among Western intellectuals, create networking opportunities between Russian and Western elites, and "create a testing ground for the Kremlin's foreign policy initiatives."
Angus Roxburgh wrote that
RIA Novosti
RIA Novosti (), sometimes referred to as RIAN () or RIA (), is a Russian state-owned domestic news agency. On 9 December 2013, by a decree of Vladimir Putin, it was liquidated and its assets and workforce were transferred to the newly created ...
was important to the establishment of Valdai during Putin's second term, and that the conference plays a key role in the Russian government's effort to burnish Putin's image and influence outsiders.
Nikolay Petrov also wrote that the club has increasingly become a "propaganda tool." British journalist
Angus Roxburgh described it as part of the
Russian propaganda effort.
According to the
Institute for the Study of War
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) is an American nonprofit research group and advocacy think tank founded in 2007 by military historian Kimberly Kagan and headquartered in Washington, D.C. ISW provides research and analysis of modern arm ...
, in 2023, one of Valdai's contributors,
Konstantin Zatulin
Konstantin Fyodorovich Zatulin (; born 7 September 1958) is a Russia, Russian politician, first deputy chairman of the committee of the State Duma for the Commonwealth of Independent States, CIS and relations with Russian nationals abroad. He re ...
, stated that Russia had failed to achieve any of its major goals during the
Russo-Ukrainian War
The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...
. These he listed as "denazification, demilitarization, the neutrality of Ukraine, and the protection of the inhabitants of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics". He said that these goals "have ceased to hold actual meaning" and suggested that Russian forces should have been more aggressive in efforts to push Ukrainian forces back from the borders of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
The Valdai Discussion Club Foundation has been sanctioned in connection with Russia's aggression against Ukraine, by Ukraine and by Canada.
In
John Mearsheimer
John Joseph Mearsheimer (; born December 14, 1947) is an American political scientist and international relations scholar. He is R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor in the University of Chicago.
Mearsheimer is best known for dev ...
's 2023 book "How States Think", the foreword acknowledges him receiving a small financial support from Valdai in conjunction with Best Book award for his 2019 book "The Great Delusion".
[Mearsheimer, J. J., & Rosato, S. (2023). ''How states think: the rationality of foreign policy''. Yale University Press.]
Annual meetings
See also
*
2014 Valdai speech of Vladimir Putin
*
Yaroslavl Global Policy Forum
References
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Think tanks based in Russia
2004 establishments in Russia
Vladimir Putin
Think tanks established in 2004