The presentation of the book “Russia's Socio-Economic Development Strategy: The Influence of the Crisis” took place at the Institute of Contemporary Development.

The presentation was led by the leading Russian economists: Igor Yurgens, Alexander Auzan, Evgeny Gontmakher, Leonid Grigoriev, Alexei Shastitko and Nikita Maslennikov.

“The way in which the situation is developing, which we predicted in the last book, leads to circumstances in which the vector of modernization creates alliances and misalliances, a certain dichotomy in the political and economic tracks. Despite the fact that modernization is everyone’s shared slogan, there is a group of leaders, including people from inside the government itself, who speak about a mobilization type of modernization. Then there is a second group of people who speak about an institutionalized type of modernization,” said Igor Yurgens, the chairman of the Institute of Contemporary Development’s Management Board. “We began by searching for strategies feasible for the Russian economy, and we continue our efforts during the crisis, taking into account its impact and acknowledging that, like in any democratic society, there can be no unanimity, but we promise that we will carry out our monitoring in the future,” he noted.

“All around the world, books are being written about the crisis as memoirs. Our work is unique because it was written at the very beginning of the crisis in 9.5 weeks,” Leonid Grigoriev emphasized.

“Our work is important because it has created a platform on which a pluralism of opinions emerge, on which different points of view are gathered, which are also the result of joint work, on which analysis about the first months of the crisis is collected. Our efforts have been focused on formulating specific suggestions,” said Anna Belova.

Evgeny Gontmakher noted that the book “reveals problems that accumulated during the ‘hazy years,’ problems in the economic and social spheres. It’s apparent that the fall in industrial production and GDP will result in the growth of social problems, and in a few years it will be incredibly difficult to return to a normal labor market.”

“By December the crisis had already affected the mutual expectations that existed between the authorities and business in the country,” said Alexander Auzan. “I’m glad that there are disagreements out there and there is the possibility of taking the next step. It’s impossible to make any changes if you don’t have support from certain interest groups,” he concluded.