Russia Development Index is a Valdai Discussion Club project aimed at measuring changes in Russian political and economic system as well as development of the Russian society. The project was started in September, 2010 at the seventh annual conference of the Valdai Club. The first survey encompassed nine vital parameters of Russia’s development during 2009 and 2010.

       Russia Development Index is a Valdai Discussion Club project aimed at measuring changes in Russian political and economic system as well as development of the Russian society. The project was started in September, 2010 at the seventh annual conference of the Valdai Club. The first survey encompassed nine vital parameters of Russia’s development during 2009 and 2010.

       The main principle of the Valdai Index is presenting unbiased and authoritative analysis of the country’s development during the year. The experts anonymously share their estimates of Russia’s performance in political, economic and social spheres. Valdai Index reflects the combine opinion of the world's leading experts on Russian and international issues. The main feature of the survey is that it reflects current trends in Russia unlike most of the expert opinion polls. The descriptive part of the report with the results of the survey is based on the comments, provided by participants of the poll explaining their estimates of Russia’s development.

       The poll methodology was created by a joint working group comprised of the Valdai Club Executive Committee and the Faculty of Sociology of the Moscow State University.

       The questionnaire includes thematically-distributed questions that reflect the most important facets of Russia’s development. The experts are asked not to compare Russia with other countries and not to ascertain the current state of affairs. Instead, they have to measure dynamics of Russia progress in eight modules: political system; economy; human dimension; science and innovative development; Russia in the system of national, regional and global security; Russian diplomatic activity on the international scene; Russia’s openness to the world and Russia’s soft power. Every module contains a number of categories that specify and define more accurately the changes that happened in Russia’s life during the year.

       The participants are to choose one mark for each category that best describes the current trend. The marks range from “-3” to “+3”.

       Their meanings are as follows:

       very substantial deterioration – “-3”

       substantial deterioration – “-2”

       slight deterioration – “-1”

       no change – “0”

       slight improvement – “+1”

       substantial improvement – “+2”

       very substantial improvement – “+3”

       Complex analysis of the marks given by the experts allows the Valdai Club to derive the general expert evaluation of development in each category and each module.

       The first Valdai Index report with the final results of the survey was given to the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during his traditional meeting with the Valdai Club experts in September, 2010. The first focus group was comprised of the 25 leading experts on Russia from the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, China, Poland, Canada and Japan. The results highlighted a tendency toward stagnation in Russia, mostly manifested in its economic, scientific, and broader socio-cultural development.

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