Civil Forum took place in Moscow’s Manezh hall on Monday. So far, it is the biggest public event for new members of the Public Chamber and for the presidential candidate Dmitry Medvedev
The first Civil Forum took place in 2001, and was organized by Presidential administration in the Kremlin. This time, Russia’s Public Chamber called the meeting.
In the first half of the day, Forum participants worked in 17 different themed groups, each supposed to come up with a list of recommendations to the country’s leadership. Social policy, healthcare, military reforms and fighting corruption were discussed, among other issues. Public Planning Institute presented a special report on corruption in modern Russia. The Institute’s director Valery Fadeev jokingly called the document ‘a beginner bureaucrat manual’. The report says the scale of bribing in the country has increased drastically in the past few years. Bribes are common in all spheres of life, such as public administration, business and media. ‘Corruption turnout’ is said to comprise up to one third part of the GDP.
Dmitry Medvedev’s arrival at the Manezh and his speech were, of course, the central point of the event. Civil Forum was the first public gathering Medvedev visited after being officially registered as a candidate in the coming presidential election.
The plenary session was opened by the academician Evgeny Velikhov, who was followed by a provincial teacher who spoke on the importance of education, actress Chulpan Khamatova who drew the audience’s attention to the problem of children living with cancer, and some other activists.
When Mr Medvedev took the stage, plasma screens flashed with ‘Russia Forward’ slogans behind his back. His speech was hardly a pre-election presentation of a presidential candidate. Medvedev spoke for 30 minutes, without promising to reform of build anything if he would be elected President on March 2. Instead, he spoke of Russia’s stable development and said the country might be among the world’s leading economies in the coming 10 or 15 years. He mentioned the importance of civil society and a future federal program aimed at fighting corruption, social responsibility and the need to raise the legal consciousness of Russians. Searching for a ‘national idea’ is not efficient, Medvedev believes. Instead, the nation should have a few clear objectives and try to achieve them. “The most important thing for our country is to maintain the peaceful, sustainable development”, Medvedev said. “There are many difficulties, but with all the things Russia went through in the 20th century, and the more successful start of the 21st century, we have pretty good chances, the candidate assumes. Modern Russia has an opportunity to become a prosperous, successful state.”
He then promised Ms Khamatova to help solve the issue of child healthcare and supported a call by one of the delegates to human rights activists to struggle for human rights instead of ‘fighting against the state’.
On January 29th, Medvedev is expected to take part in the session of Russian Lawyers Association. Most likely, he will present his pre-election program at the gathering.
Photo: AP
Vera Kholmogorova
http://eng.expert.ru
