The majority of the Valdai Club members are western experts, who are critical about Russia’s political institutions, the role of the ruling party, and the role Vladimir Putin plays in Russia. One may notice that the situation with the national security of Russia became much better, and the same goes for Russia’s relations with neighboring countries.

       Valdai Index (Russian Development Index) was launched in 2009 and presents international expert community’s assessment of Russia’s institutional development trends.

       Sheng Shiliang , Chief Researcher with the Center for Global Challenges Studies, Xinhua News Agency, reflects on the key results of the Index for 2011-2012 .

       Even before the ‘Russian Development Index 2011/2012’ was published, I expected most of experts’ estimation parameters to be negative. But I really did not expect them to be as much negative. This is quite understandable, because the majority of the Valdai Club members are western experts, who are critical about Russia’s political institutions, the role of the ruling party, and the role Vladimir Putin plays in Russia.

       Specifically, I was surprised on negative estimations of Russia’s ruling party, the Government performance, etc. As for estimations which I did expect to find at the report, these are on Russia’s integration into international economy, specifically Russia’s accession to the WTO. Russia’s macroeconomic situation estimations were different. If compared to other European countries, Russia’s economic performance is not that bad, Russia still enjoys positive economic growth. But in terms of expectations, the situation in the Russian economy is not good enough.

       Coming back to the ‘Russian Development Index 2011/2012’ – I would not agree with negative estimations of the situation with the freedom of speech in Russia. It is at least not worse, compared to other countries of the world. One may notice that the situation with the national security of Russia became much better, and the same goes for Russia’s relations with neighboring countries.

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