The World Political Forum named ‘The Modern State: Standards of Democracy and Criteria of Efficiency’ has started off in the ancient Russian city of Yaroslavl in an event that will be, among others, attended by President Dmitry Medvedev later this week.
It was the Russian leader who initiated the creation of the Yaroslavl Forum in 2009, when Medvedev expressed hope that the event will soon reach the level of the Davos Forum.
Gleb Pavlovsky, a Moscow-based political analyst, said that the Yaroslavl Forum’s name reflects an array of challenges the Russian leadership is currently dealing with.
"First and foremost, it is the economic modernization," Pavlovsky explains, citing democratic standards which, he contends, "are coming hand-in-hand with the modernization process in Russia."
"Significantly, it is a step-by-step and complicated process," Pavlovsky says, quoting President Medveved as saying that modernization should embrace all the fields, not only the economy. "Russia is signaling its readiness to grapple with the matter in a close cooperation with developed countries," Pavlovsky pointed out.
In an interview with the Voice of Russia on Thursday, Musokodzi Kinhide, head of the Asia-Pacific Partnership Center in Japan, gave his thoughts on the topic.
"As I see it, each county has its own standards of democracy," Kinhide says, warning authorities against backsliding on democratic principles. "Each and every person should have a legal right to vote," Kinhide goes on to say, pointing to the former Soviet Union and modern-day Japan, "where democratic standards have yet to be improved. To my mind, a real democracy is something that specifically leans on pluralism of opinions," the Japanese expert concludes.
With the Yaroslavl Forum already in full swing, the hope is that participants will ultimately arrive at a political accommodation on many pressing issues of mutual interest.
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