Press Release, 10.10.2014

International Conference “Liberal Values Versus a Conservative Trend in Politics and Public Life in Europe” organized by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and the YABLOKO party will take place in Moscow on October 11. YABLOKO is a full member of ALDE.

Where will the growing conservative trends in Russia and in Europe lead all of us to? Is the world is moving closer towards a power politics? Why does a truly global economy need liberal values​​? These and other questions will be discussed at the conference.

The stance of the YABLOKO party which has been openly proclaiming the need for the European way of development for Russia contradicts the main idea of ​​the present government pushing the country to a “truly Russian” way allegedly characterized by Orthodoxy, autocracy and nationalism.

Liberals from Europe and Russia will determine the main directions of the liberal policies in modern conditions.

Moderator of the conference will be Dr. Prof. Galina Mikhaleva, Secretary of YABLOKO Political Committee, Chair of the YABLOKO Gender Faction.

Welcoming speeches will be made by Dr. Grigory Yavlinsky, Chair of the YABLOKO faction in St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, YABLOKO founder, member of YABLOKO’s Political Committee, Prof. of Higher School of Economics, Olle Schmidt, ALDE Vice President, MEP 1999-2004 and 2006-2014, Swedish Liberal People’s Party, Sweden and Baroness Kishwer Falkner, Vice President, Liberal International, British Liberal Democrats, member of the House of Lords.

Sir Graham Watson, ALDE party President, has sent a video address to the conference.

The key reports will be made by Sergei Mitrokhin (The ‘Conservative Turn’ in the Russian Politics and Its Consequences) and Baroness Kishwer Falkner (Isolation or Integration: the New European Challenge).

The key reports will be followed by panel discussions: Evolution of Liberal and Conservative Ideologies (including the Russian variant), Conservatism Versus Nationalism: the European and the Russian Variants, Liberal Values and Building of Institutions: the State and the Law, Present International Conflicts and the Liberal Values, Liberal Values and Economic Policies in the Globalisation Era, The Society: Between Liberalism, Conservatism and Nationalism. The Imposed and the Traditional Values and other.

The reports will be made by European guests: Dr. Matyas Eörsi, President of ALDE-PACE Group (2002 – 2009), State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hungary (1997 – 1998), Senior Advisor to the Secretary General of the Community of Democracies, Dr. Markus Ehm, head of the Moscow Bureau, Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung, Dr. Rainer Stinner, Foreign Policy Spokesman for the FDP in the German Bundestag (2009 – 2013), FDP, Germany, Johan Ekman, Chair of International Committee, Swedish People’s Party of Finland, Dr. Andres Knaul, Managing Partner Russia and Kazakhstan, Rödl & Partner, FDP, Germany , Satka Hajdarpasic, Vice President of the Liberal Party of Montenegro (LPCG), Acting director of the Diplomatic Academy at Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Emil Kirjas, Secretary General, Liberal International, Lena Baden, journalist, Radikale Venstre, Denmark, and other.

The following renowned Russian experts will participate in the conference: Dr.Vladimir Kantor, Professor of the Higher School of Economics, writer and publicist, Dr.Prof. Yury Pivovarov, Academician of the History and Philology Department, the Russian Academy of Sciences,Dr.Viktor Sheinis, Professor of the Moscow University for the Humanities, member of YABLOKO Political Committee, Dr. Andrei Medushevsky, Professor of Higher School of Economics, Dr. Prof. Boris Vishnevsky, member of YABLOKO Bureau and deputy of St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, Tatyana Vorozheykina, renowned social scientist, Nikita Sokolov, Editor-in-Chief of journal Otechestvenniye Zapiski and other.

There will be on-line streaming of the conference at www.yabloko.ru for Russian speakers and www.eng.yabloko.ru for English speakers.

The conference begins at 9.00 (MSK).