President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin will traditionally speak at  plenary session of the Valdai Club. This was announced by the press secretary of the Russian leader Dmitry Peskov. The performance will take place on October 27.
For now, however, the question is whether it will be in a personal format.
“If I understand it correctly, various nuances are being finalized there, but sometimes the same mixed format as in recent times is used. Still, given the remaining restrictions regarding COVID-19, it cannot be ruled out that there will be some mixed format — Kremlin spokesman commented on the speech.
The Valdai International Discussion Club was founded in 2004. The club owes its name to the venue of the first conference, which was held in Veliky Novgorod, near Lake Valdai.
As stated on the website of the event, the intellectual potential of the Valdai Club is highly valued in Russia and abroad. Over the years of the Club's existence, more than 1,000 representatives of the international scientific community from 85 countries have participated in its work. Among them are professors of the world's largest “think tanks”; and universities – Harvard, Columbia, Georgetown, Stanford, Carlton, London, Cairo, Tehran, East China, Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Messina, as well as Johns Hopkins University, London School of Economics, King's College London, Science Po and the Sorbonne.< /p>
The regional conferences of the Valdai Club have become well-known among the international expert community. – Asian, Middle Eastern, Russian-Chinese and Euro-Atlantic dialogues. Club meetings are held within the framework of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
Only in recent years have many prominent politicians, experts, figures of public life and cultural figures from Russia and other countries become participants in the Valdai Club conference.
From the Russian side – they are Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister (as President of Russia, 2008-2012); Valentina Matvienko, Chairman of the Council of the Federation; Vyacheslav Volodin, Chairman of the State Duma; Sergei Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Sergei Shoigu, Minister of Defense; Sergey Ivanov, Head of Presidential Administration (2011–2016); Igor Shuvalov, First Deputy Prime Minister (2008-2018); Sergey Sobyanin, Mayor of Moscow and others.
Among the foreign participants – Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan; Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein, King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; Kassym-Jomart Tokaev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan; Rodrigo Duterte, President of the Republic of the Philippines; Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan (2004-2014); Tarja Halonen, President of Finland (2000-2012); Ali Larijani, Chairman of the Islamic Advisory Council of Iran (2008–2020); Heinz Fischer, Federal President of Austria (2004-2016); Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa (1999-2008); Václav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic (2003-2013); Wolfgang Schüssel, Federal Chancellor of Austria (2000-2007); François Fillon, Prime Minister of France (2007-2012); Romano Prodi, Prime Minister of Italy (1996-1998, 2006-2008); Dominique de Villepin, Prime Minister of France (2005-2007); Fu Ying, Chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress (2013–2018); Volker Rühe, German Minister of Defense (1992-1998); Tsogtbaatar Damdin, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia (2017-2020); Yang Jiechi, member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, head of the Office of the Foreign Commission of the CPSU Central Committee; Krzysztof Zanussi, Polish film director and producer; Moshe Yaalon, Israeli Minister of Defense (2013-2016); Robert Skidelsky, Member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom; John Mearsheimer, professor at the University of Chicago; Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group, and many others.