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Event

The Russia Conference 2013: What happened to Russia’s modernization?

NUPI's annual Russia conference/MODNORTH capstone conference will this year be about modernization in Russia.
27 August 2013
09:30 Europe/Oslo
Language:
Litteraturhuset
Seminar

Themes

  • Russia and Eurasia
  • Governance

The term "modernization" was the main buzzword during Dmitri Medvedevs's presidency. "Modernization" supplanted and to some extent subsumed other slogans about Russia’s development – transition, westernisation, privatisation, rule of law, democratisation or sovereign democracy. However, the choreographed switching of political roles between Medvedev and Putin in 2012 dampened the hopes of those who saw Medvedev as an independent and more progressive political force in Russia.

In light of these events, the conference will discuss several questions: Was “modernization” first and foremost a rhetorical tool, or was substantial change on the agenda? Is “modernization”, as formulated by Medvedev, a dead project? The challenges that modernization was meant to address have not disappeared – what is the place of these challenges on the Russian political agenda today.

This conference is the capstone event of the project Modernization and the Russian North (MODNORTH, 2011-2013) led by Elana Wilson Rowe at NUPI and involving a network of national and international partners. The project is supported by the NORRUSS programme of the Norwegian Research Council.

Special issue of Nordisk Østforum was published after the conference.

PROGRAMME:

09:00

Welcome address – Indra Øverland, NUPI

09:10

Dmitri Trenin: Russia and the world: The importance of being modern

09:40

Panel 1: Political modernization?

 

Chair: Julie Wilhelmsen, NUPI

Vladimir Gel'man: “Freedom is better than non-freedom”: unintended consequences of rhetorical liberalization

Irina Busygina: The Open Government initiative

Natalia Moen-Larsen: Mr. President: Modernization and social media

11:10

Coffee break

11:30

Panel 2: Modernization in the regions. The case of North-West Russia

 

Chair: Kirsti Stuvøy, HiL

Andrei Mineev/Anatoli Bourmistrov: Modernization of business practices from the bottom-up. The case of North-West Russia

Helge Blakkisrud: New approaches to regional governance

12:30

Lunch

13:15

Panel 3: Modernizing state-business relations?

 

Chair: Jakub Godzimirski, NUPI

Richard Sakwa: State-business relations and the dual state

Richard Connolly: On the doorstep of modernity? Economic development in Putin's Russia

Alena Ledeneva: Modernization and sistema

14:50

Closing remarks: Indra Øverland, NUPI

27 August 2013
09:30 Europe/Oslo
Language:
Litteraturhuset
Seminar

Themes

  • Russia and Eurasia
  • Governance