Published: February 13th, 2017

There are particularly acute security problems , inequality and social disadvantage all over the world today. These problems have their own specifics in Russia. What measures should be taken to improve the situation and how effective is the current economic policy , it will be discussed by the participants of the Moscow Economic Forum (MEF), which will be held on March 30-31. A member of budgetary-financial Committee of Legislative Assembly of St.-Petersburg Oksana Dmitrieva, who will speak at a plenary discussion titled "Confused man between despair and hope: the world situation and Russian specifics", spoke about her vision of the situation.

– Oksana, what topics would you like to touch on during the plenary discussions on MEF?

I'm going to talk about assessing the situation. First, there is no clear understanding at what stage the crisis in Russia is. Some says that the transition has begun to grow, however, my position is that we are still in decline , although slowed down. It is either the continuation of the crisis or the transition to stagnation, but not the growth. Second, the current economic downturn in Russia has no traditional signs of the crisis. It happened on the background of the devaluation accompanied by high inflation. Also there were absence of bankruptcy and cheap loans. It turns out that this crisis is a strange set of facts. There is no bottom from which to rebound. On these topics I would like to speak during the plenary discussion.

- All countries face similar problems such as social inequality today. What are the Russian specifics of this problem?

– The countries have either reduced social inequality or preserved it for the last 50 years. In its performance over the last 25 years Russia moved from inequality at the level of Northern European countries to the differentiation, which is higher than in the United States. And there are no tendencies for the reduction of social differences. Typically, the level of social inequality is accompanied by conditions for individual growth, but in Russia it is not. That is, a person has few opportunities to get rich. It is absolutely conservative social and economic structure: there is a lack of economic freedoms under high social inequality. Hence the social passivity.

– How will MEF influence the situation in Russia? Will the power listen to the advice of experts?

– Directly MEF will not affect but its holding is very important. There are vulgar liberals at the helm for the last 20 years. Who are not even following the same direction of development. They have collected a mixture of concepts which in part relates to other conditions, and partly are incorrect. It's a jumble of some dogmas and clichés that they have gained in the 1990s and still follow them.

Thus, any well-developed point of view is extremely important. MEF has established itself as a consistent forum in the presentation and elaboration of alternative positions.

Source: PR department of MEF