The first trip took place on October 18-24, 2008. Ivan Krastev and Anna Ganeva went to Moscow for a series of meetings with important civil society policy actors. The one week stay gave us the opportunity to meet with a variety of experts representing the whole spectrum of political views:
Irina Yasina, analyst at the Institute of Transitional Economy, a weekly economic commentator for RIA-Novosti and a representative of the Open Russia Foundation;
Rouslan Hestanov, Deputy Editor in Chief of Russkii Zhurnal;
Gleb Pavlovski, President, Effective Policy Foundation;
Irina Chechel, Senior Lecturer on Soviet and Post-Soviet History, Russian State University for Humanities, Moscow;
Boris Mezhuev, Politicheskii Klas magazine, Effective Politics Foundation, deputy editor-in-chief of Smisl (Meaning) magazine, professor of history of Russian philosophy at the Moscow State University;
Modest Kolerov, chairman of the union Svobodnaya Rossiya (Free Russia);
Elena Kovalevskaia, OSI Moscow;
Simon Kordonsky, Professor, Higher School of Economics, Moscow;
Maria Lipman, Editor-in-chief of the Pro et Contra Journal, Carnegie Moscow Center;
Boris Dolgin, Deputy Editor-in-chief of Polit.ru;
Alexander Ausan, President of the Institute of the Social Contract, Member of the President Council on Human Rights and Civil Society;
Vladislav Inozemtsev, Proffessor of Economics, Director of the Centre for Post-Industrial Studies, publisher of Svobodnaia Mysl monthly;
Vadim Tzimburski, Senior Researcher, Institute of Philosophy, Institute for Oriental Studies;
Alexander Prohanov, writer;
Maksim Shevtchenko, journalist, First Channel of the National TV
Instead of a second trip to Russia we invited representatives of the Fund for Effective Policy to Sofia in order to have more time for discussion and to present their views to the Bulgarian public. The visit took place from 7 to 10 December 2008. The group included: Gleb Pavlovski, Modest Kolerov, Vyacheslav Glazychev, and Boris Mezhuev. Their visit included series of meetings, a public seminar and a public lecture of Gleb Pavlovski.
On December 8, 2008 an expert discussion was organized. The topics discussed were: Economic Aspects of the Russian Internal Politics (Vyacheslav Glazychev); Competition and Conflict: Balkans and Caucasus (Modest Kolerov); The Global Discussion about the Sovereignty and the Transformation of the Russian External Policy in 2005-2008 (Boris Mezhuev). The discussion was moderated by Gleb Pavlovski and Ivan Krastev.
On December 9 a public lecture of Gleb Pavlovski was held in the Red House Centre for Culture and Debates. The lecture’s topic was "Russia Today" and it gathered the attention of more than 60 experts and journalist.
Period: October 2008 - March 2009
Coordinators: Anna Ganeva, Ivan Krastev
Financing Organisations: Open Society Foundation, New York