Statement by Dmitry Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation

I hope that this platform will serve as a meeting place for leading economists, policy experts, lawyers, demographic analysts, and all specialists, whom we need to carry out our work. I am a supporter of open discussion: the government needs neither compliments, nor praise from experts, but rather an open, full-fledged, public discussion of existing problems in social and economic areas.

If we need a policy that is focused on people, then we should discuss these issues within the framework of civil society. Civil society should have means to influence the implementation of social policy. And expert discussions of this kind are one of the forms of such influence.