Press Release, September 16, 2013

Efficient state governance means not merely a technique or an algorithm, but a vector of development which is determined by the political system and the political elite, it means development of relations in the society based on trust, said YABLOKO founder Grigory Yavlinsky at the international conference Forum 2000 which has opened in Prague.

Grigory Yavlinsky and Nobel Prize winners – Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of opposition in Myanma, and Frederik Willem de Klerk, ex President of South Africa, – made one of the key speeches in the discussion “The Road to Good Governance”.

In his speech Yavlinsky noted that economic indicators are not the key criteria in assessing the quality of state governance. “Last year Russia’s GDP grew by four per cent, while Germany’ GDP rose by less than one per cent and the GDP of France was expressed in a negative value, however, all this does not indicate high quality of Russia’s governance. In fact, growth of welfare in the absence of deep modernisation of the society and the state may lead to further general degradation of the country,” he said.

According to Yavlinsky, the key characteristics of the elite which in capable of implementing modernisation of the country are professionalism, unselfishness, independence and patriotism, i.e. “their obvious linking of their future with their country”.

Grigory Yavlinsky has also become one of the key participants in the discussion “Risks of Transition”. In his speech he formulated the basic principles for conducting reforms based his many years of experience in Russia.

Yavlinsky believes that main object for reform, is such a reform claims to be efficient in the 21st century, is public consciousness and “no solution can not be realized if it is contrary to the vital interests of the absolute majority of people”. According to Yavlinsky, the attempts targeted at modernisation and splitting the society will not be successful, as it is necessary to form such s statehood which will implement the task of integration of public consciousness into reforms”

Responding to a question about the correlation between the speed of reforms with their success Yavlinsky stressed that “continuous expectation of a rapid effect and hysteria about it are extremely harmful in terms of strategy, it is clearly seen from a distance, but we must learn to see this inside the process”.

“In general a reform is not a military campaign. This means fostering the future out of a small initial segment, which at the same time contains all the key elements needed for a change,” Yavlinsky noted.

Forum 2000 is an international conference founded by Czech President Vaclav Havel. It has been conducted for over ten years already. Every year political, intellectual and spiritual leaders participate in Forum 2000. This year Forum 2000 joins together Nobel Peace Prize winners – Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Kyi and Frederik Willem de Klerk, famous Egyptian writer and journalist Tarek Osman, French historian and political scientist Jacques Rupnik and other. The Forum will work until September 18 and the participants will discuss the most urgent topics of the world politics, especially those related to social transformation.