At the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum on February 27, experts of the Valdai Club presented a report entitled Toward the Great Ocean-2, or Russia’s Breakthrough to Asia. This study is a follow-up to the Club’s report Toward the Great Ocean, or the New Globalization of Russia, published in July 2012 and incorporates its conclusions.

       At the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum on February 27, experts of the Valdai Club presented a report entitled Toward the Great Ocean-2, or Russia’s Breakthrough to Asia . This study is a follow-up to the Club’s report Toward the Great Ocean, or the New Globalization of Russia , published in July 2012 and incorporates its conclusions.

       Sergei Karaganov , Head of the authors’ group of and Executive Editor of both reports, and Honorary Chairman of the Presidium of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy, said on this score: “Since the publication of the first report, Russian policy has made a turn to the East both in declarations and as a result of its activities on multilateral negotiating platforms, as well as a number of objective advantages that allow our state to take part in resolving regional issues. The majority of the political and intellectual elite has come to realize the importance of building up cooperation with the Asia-Pacific Region (APR). However, Russia has not yet filled the Asian vector of its policy with specific content. This is why the report offers recommendations for the further development of Siberia and the Far East – Russia’s window to Asia.”

       One of the report’s authors, MGIMO Professor Oleg Barabanov , justifies its urgency as follows: “The resources of internal development of Eastern Siberia and the Far East are almost depleted. Therefore, the only driver of development is the integration of the region into the international economic ties of the APR. We must elaborate new strategies to make Siberia competitive in the large economy of the APR and formulate a new Siberian identity in the cultural and civil environment of Asia in the 21st century.”

       The principal author of the report is Igor Makarov , a young scientist and lecturer at the National Research University – Higher School of Economics. The coauthors are Professor Oleg Barabanov of Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Timofei Bordachev , Director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies, National Research University – Higher School of Economics, Victor Larin, Director of the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Evgeny Kanaev and Professor Vladimir Ryzhkov , National Research University – Higher School of Economics.

       Views expressed are of individual Members and Contributors, rather than the Club's, unless explicitly stated otherwise.