Programme

Russia has unique mechanisms of interaction for its relations with foreign countries: bilateral dialogues with Germany, France, Austria, and a number of other countries. All three dialogues bring together representatives of civil society, the academic world, and the business community. The St. Petersburg Dialogue demonstrated its enduring nature and stability during some of the most stressful periods, the Trianon Dialogue emerged when tensions between Russia and the West reached their climax, and the Sochi Dialogue built on the experience of both difficult and fruitful contacts in various matters. What experience and opportunities do the Russian-German, Russian-French, and Russian-Austrian dialogues offer according to their co-chairs?

Moderator
Ekaterina Trofimova, Partner, Deloitte CIS

Ekaterina Trofimova

Partner, Deloitte CIS

On November 20, 2015, Ekaterina Trofimova was elected Chief Executive Officer by decision of the General Meeting of Founders of the Analytical Credit Rating Agency ACRA. Previously, in 2011, she joined the Gazprom team and, since 2012, has been a member of the Management Committee and been in charge of the work of the Ratings Advisory Centre, the Centre for Economic Forecasting and the Corporate Relations Department. From 2000 through July 2011, Ms. Trofimova worked as a financial analyst, Director and Head of Russia and CIS Financial Institutions Rating Group at Standard & Poor’s (Paris, France). Ms. Trofimova was on the analysis board of the ratings agency in Europe and was in charge of the group for awarding ratings to financial institutions. At S&P, she fulfilled a played role in developing and updating the methodology for preparing financial institution ratings. Alongside analytical work relating to major financial institutions, Ms. Trofimova took an active part in developing the concept for the company’s strategic development and HR management in the region. Ms. Trofimova graduated in Global Economics from the St. Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance in 1998 and the Sorbonne (Paris) in Finances and Tax Management in 2000.
January 17, 2019 Ekaterina Trofimova left the post of Chief Executive Officer of ACRA.

Panellists
Viktor Zubkov, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Gazprom
Christoph Leitl, Honorary President, Austrian Federal Economic Chamber
Pierre Morel, Co-Chairman, Trianon Dialogue Forum; Ambassador of the French Republic to the Russian Federation (1992-1996)
Anatoly Torkunov, Rector, MGIMO University
Andrey Fursenko, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation
Martin Hoffmann, Executive Director, Petersburg Dialogue Forum

Viktor Zubkov

Chairman of the Board of Directors, Gazprom

Christoph Leitl

Honorary President, Austrian Federal Economic Chamber

Pierre Morel

Co-Chairman, Trianon Dialogue Forum; Ambassador of the French Republic to the Russian Federation (1992-1996)

Ambassador Pierre Morel was born on 27 June 1944 in Romans (France). He is a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Sciences (1965), of the Paris Faculty of Law at Assas (1966), and of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (1971)
He began his diplomatic career at the Quai d'Orsay in 1971. He started at the Soviet desk, moved on to political-military affairs and participated in the creation of the Planning Staff in 1974. He then served at the French Embassy in Moscow (1976-1979).
He served twice at the Office of the President of the Republic. From 1981 to 1985 as a Counsellor (European affairs and multilateral summits) and in 1991-1992, as Diplomatic Advisor. He participated in the negotiation of the Maastricht Treaty.
Political Director at the Quai d'Orsay in 1985-1986, he was then appointed Ambassador at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva (1986-1990), where he chaired the working group on the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (CWC) in 1989.
He served as Ambassador to the Russian Federation from 1992 to 1996. He was also accredited, while in residence in Moscow, to Georgia (1992-1993), Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan (1992-1996), and to Kyrgyzstan (1993-1996).
He served as Ambassador in the People's Republic of China (1996-2002) and then to the Holy See (2002-2005).
From December 2005 to September 2006 he worked in Paris as advisor to the Policy Planning centre in the French foreign ministry and on specific assignments.
Ambassador Morel was appointed EU Special Representative for Central Asia on 5 October 2006 by the Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union, and then also for the Crisis in Georgia from September 2008 to August 2011. Since July 2012, he is the director of the Pharos Observatory of cultural and religious pluralism."

Anatoly Torkunov

Rector, MGIMO University

Anatoly V. Torkunov is the Rector of Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University). He holds an MA and two doctoral degrees in History and Political Science.
Prof. Anatoly V. Torkunov is a leading expert on Russian foreign policy, regional subsystems in Asia-Pacific Region and North-Eastern Asia, history of Korea, history of diplomacy. He is the author of more than 200 publications, including 9 individual monographs. Several of them were published in the USA, South Korea, Japan, Poland and other countries.
Professor Torkunov also holds positions of the Chairman of the Russia-UN Association; President of the Russian International Studies Association; Member of the Academic Council at the Security Council of Russia; Member of the Board of the Russian Diplomatic Association; Chairman of the Curricula Development Association of Russian Schools of International Relations, Co-Chairman of Russian-Polish Group on Difficult Matters, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Russian Channel One.

Andrey Fursenko

Aide to the President of the Russian Federation

Born on July 17, 1949, in Leningrad (now St Petersburg). 1971 – graduated from Zhdanov Leningrad State University; Doctor of Physics and Mathematics. 1971-1991 – junior researcher, laboratory head, deputy director for research, leading researcher at the Ioffe Physical Technical Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Leningrad. 1991-1993 – Vice President of Advanced Technology Centre, St Petersburg. 1994-2001 – Director of Regional Foundation for Scientific and Technological Development, St Petersburg. From 2000 – Chairman of the Academic Council of the Centre for Strategic Research North-West Foundation. 2001-2002 – Deputy Minister of Industry, Science and Technology of the Russian Federation. From June 2002 – First Deputy Minister of Industry, Science and Technology of the Russian Federation. From December 2003 – Acting Minister of Industry, Science and Technology of the Russian Federation. March 9, 2004 – appointed Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. Since May 21, 2012 – Aide to the President of the Russian Federation. State award – Honorary Diploma of the Government of the Russian Federation.

Martin Hoffmann

Executive Director, Petersburg Dialogue Forum