Business programme

Maintaining a private life is a fundamental human right providing for, among other things, the inviolability of the domain of life that lies beyond the interests of the public and the state. As soon as individuals join a social network, sign a user agreement, make public posts, or simply download applications to their phones, they are knowingly or unknowingly deprived of that right. Their opinions and any information about them become publicly accessible, and they become a kind of human media, liable to the laws regulating media. This digital alter ego, initially a manifestation of freedom of expression, makes real users vulnerable to manipulation by service providers, the state, and fraudsters. How can the state, business and society solve this problem? What conflicts does it create in different countries and regions? There are various approaches: China has a radical solution to these problems in the interests of the state, the USA prioritizes business, while European lawmakers are attempting to strike a balance between state and private interests. In theory, the same laws that apply offline should apply here, but networks are a cross-border phenomenon. How can the rights that function in the digital space be determined? Could international agreements such as the Outer Space Treaty, the Antarctic Treaty, and the law of the sea serve as a model? Or do ethical and legal standards differ so greatly between nations that international agreements are impractical? What do network sovereignty and digital rights mean? Do the limits of a private life need to be redefined in the new context, or have they remained unchanged? How can compliance with legal and ethical standards on social media be regulated, and is this desirable? Should offline laws be transferred to the online space? Is it possible to properly combine the self-regulation of networks with state regulation?

Moderator
Andrei Bystritskiy, Сhairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club

Andrei Bystritskiy

Сhairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club

In 1985-1991, Andrey Bystritskiy was engaged in research as a Senior Fellow at the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences. He has been in the media industry since 1991, starting as the Head of the Audience Research Department of the All-Russia State Television and Radio Company (RTR), author and host of radio and television broadcasts. In 1993-1996, Andrey Bystritskiy headed sociological research at the Company. From 1996 to 1997, he was in charge of the "Society" Department at the Itogi (Russian Newsweek) magazine. In 1997-1998, Andrey Bystritskiy was Deputy Director General for Information at TV Tsentr. Between 1998 and 1999, he was the Producer of the Russian news service on BBC. In 1999, he joined the Organizing Committee of the Unofficial Moscow Festival as one of its Co-Chairs, he was also a member of the Editorial Board of the Moscow Alternative newspaper and Chairman of the Mayak State Radio Broadcasting Company (main information radio in Russia). In 2000, Bystritskiy became the Director General of the Vesti State Television Company (an entity of RTR). From 2000 to 2008, he was Deputy Director General of RTR and the Director of the Department of Information Programmes of the Russia TV. In 2000-2013 Bystritskiy was a member of the Board of Directors and Vice President of international broadcasting company Euronews. Between 2005 and 2007, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Apologia monthly magazine. From 2008 to 2014, he was the Chairman of the Voice of Russia State Radio Company (Russian international broadcaster in 44 languages). Andrey Bystritskiy has been at the National Research University – Higher School of Economics since 2001, as a Dean of the Faculty of Communications, Media and Design since 2014. Since 2008, he has been the head of the Council of the Heads of Government and Public Television and Radio Organizations of CIS Countries. Since 2014, Bystritskiy has been the Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club and the Chairman of the Public Supervisory Council of the Russian Ministry of Communications. Andrey Bystritskiy is a Professor and PhD (Pedagogics, 1989). He is a member of the Union of Writers. In June 2007, he received the Order of Honour. Andrey Bystritskiy is the author of books, including such works as Youth Subcultures and Russia's Intelligentsia During the Demise of the Soviet System (1991), and numerous publications in newspapers and magazines.

Panellists
Igor Ashmanov, General Director, Kribrum; Managing Partner, Ashmanov and Partners
Christopher Gerry, Associate Professor of Russian and Eurasian Political Economy, Dean, St Antony's College University of Oxford; Professor, Visiting Lecturer, Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences and Area Studies HSE (online)
Roman Maksimov, Chief Executive Officer, Rutube
Tatyana Matveeva, Chief, Presidential Directorate for the Development of Information and Communication Technology and Communication Infrastructure
Sergei Plugotarenko, Director, Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC)
Igor Pototsky, Chairman of the Committee on Entrepreneurship in the Field of Media Communications, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation; General Director, STP Sales House
Mikhail Fedotov, Director, "UNESCO Chair in Copyright, Related, Cultural and Information Rights" International Scientific and Educational Center

Igor Ashmanov

General Director, Kribrum; Managing Partner, Ashmanov and Partners

Born on 9 January 1962. Graduated from Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics at Moscow State University with PhD in technical sciences.
Among dozens of products released under his management are Spamtest spam filter (later rebranded as Kaspersky Antispam), ORFO multifunctional spelling checking system (used in Microsoft Office), and a large collection of Medialingua e-dictionaries.
Since 1999, chief research and development officer, then CEO at Rambler. Directed development and release of Rambler’s search engine and most of the services by the company (until their update in 2012).
Since 2001, managing partner (and CEO – till 2015) at Ashmanov and Partners. The company provides integrated Internet marketing services, develops various search and advertising technologies and services.
Igor Ashmanov founded and co-founded startups that make a heavy use of big data technologies, applied linguistics, artificial intelligence, and robotics.
In 2005, he founded Nanosemantics, a company that develops technologies and services based on direct man-machine verbal interaction. In 2010, he founded Metahouse, a startup that develops vertical search engines that involve collecting, storing, and analyzing big data. In 2010, he co-founded Kribrum, a company that provides online service for reputation management and information security.
In 2011, he founded RIWW, a startup that creates mobile apps searching in the content of other mobile apps. In 2012, he founded A&P Media, a company that develops mobile apps based on game mechanics. In 2012, he co-founded Wicron, an applied robotics company that is currently working on a low-budget 3D printer made entirely in Russia, remotely controlled robots, and robots that maintain interaction with users using natural language.
Igor Ashmanov is active participant in multiple government working groups: a Presidential Executive Office based working group on digital economy (“Internet + society” and “Internet + sovereignty” subgroups, led by Igor Schyogolev), a State Duma based Digital Economy Council (led by Vyacheslav Volodin), and the Ministry of Communications based working group on digital economy (“Information security” subgroup).
He is also Skolkovo Foundation expert and lecturer at the Military Academy of Strategic Missile Troops and the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, where he delivers lectures on big data, social networks, and information warfare.
Awards: “Man of the year” award in ROTOR contests in 2004 and 2006. Listed by Forbes Russia among TOP30 most influential people on Russian Internet.

Christopher Gerry

Associate Professor of Russian and Eurasian Political Economy, Dean, St Antony's College University of Oxford; Professor, Visiting Lecturer, Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences and Area Studies HSE

Professor Christopher J Gerry joined St Antony’s College as Associate Professor of Russian and Eurasian Political Economy in September 2017. Before that he held positions at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (2002-2017) and, during a recent 3-year period of leave, at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) in St. Petersburg (2014-2017), where he continues to hold a part-time affiliation. He received his BA and MA in Economics from the University of East Anglia in 1996 and 1997 respectively and his PhD in Economics, from University of Essex, in 2002. Professor Gerry’s research has focused on the social, economic and health impacts of the changing economic circumstances in Russia and Eurasia. He has published in some of the leading journals on topics including health policy, smoking behaviours, social exclusion, inequality, wage arrears, vulnerability, gender and mortality. His work (2012) on the link between mass privatisation and mortality became part of a controversial debate concerning the link between economic reforms and socio-economic outcomes in the post-communist region. His current research focuses on the political economy of health, welfare and labour in Russia, with articles forthcoming on health insurance reform, multi-morbidity and the medical labour market. He is currently researching a book on health, welfare and gender in the Russian Federation and is involved in multiple research projects with the HSE St. Petersburg International Centre for Health Economics, Management and Policy, which he established successfully in 2015. His teaching interests and expertise are wide-ranging, including Health Economics, Macroeconomics, Public Choice, European Integration and the Political Economy of Emerging Markets. Professor Gerry has a wealth of management experience including heading the Internationalisation Commission (2014-17) and the Centre for Health Economics, Management and Policy (2015-17) at HSE St. Petersburg; serving as Deputy Director (2013-14), Director of Teaching Resources (2011-14), and Director of an International Erasmus Mundus Consortium at UCL (2006-2010); heading a Soros Foundation project promoting Health Economics in Eurasia (2011-14); and serving as a trustee of the BEARR Trust (2009-2012).

Roman Maksimov

Chief Executive Officer, Rutube

Roman Alexandrovich Maximov
Chief Executive Officer at OOO Ruform

Roman Maximov was born on October 10, 1973, in Novosibirsk.
He is a graduate of Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University.
He holds an MBA degree from the Institute of Business and Business Management at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.

Professional background
From 2008 until 2010, he worked as Chairman of the Kaliningrad Region Tele2 Russia division
From 2010 until 2011, he was head of the Novosibirsk ER-Telecom division
From 2015 until 2016, he worked as Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Solaris Promo Production
From 2016 until 2018, Roman worked as Executive Director at TNT-CLUB
From 2018 until 2019, he was member of the board of directors at TNT Music
Since 2019, he has been Chief Executive Officer at OOO "Rusform," a company developing RUTUBE, a leading video hosting platform in Russia.

Tatyana Matveeva

Chief, Presidential Directorate for the Development of Information and Communication Technology and Communication Infrastructure

Sergei Plugotarenko

Director, Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC)

Mr. Plugotarenko graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), Department of Physical and Quantum Electronics (1993–1996) and Department of Control and Applied Mathematics (1996–1999), certified as Physical Engineer specializing in Applied Mathematics and Physics.From 2002, he was leading ICT specialist at the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE UNESCO – http://ru.iite.unesco.org).In 2004–2006, he was executive director and, from 2007, director of the Runet Awards competition. Since 2005, he has served as coordinator of programme committees for some high-profile sectoral conference events, including the Russian Internet Forum (RIF), Russian Interactive Week (RIW) and others.In 2005–2007, he served as deputy executive director of the Regional Non-government Centre for Internet Technologies (ROCIT – www.rocit.ru) – the oldest NGO engaged in expert evaluation, promotion and development of the ICT segment in the Russian Federation, upholding the interests of Internet users. In 2007, he was elected executive director of ROCIT.From 2005 he was ideologue and founder of the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (NP RAEC – www.raec.ru), promoting the interests of Russian Internet players. From 2006, he was deputy general manager of NP RAEC.In 2011–2013, Mr. Plugotarenko was member of the Council of Coordination Centre for National Top Level Domains RU/RF – www.cttld.ru. Since 2010, he has been director of The Russian Association for Electronic Communications (NP RAEC).

Front row participant
Savva Shipov, Deputy General Director - Director for Digital Transformation, URALCHEM

Savva Shipov

Deputy General Director - Director for Digital Transformation, URALCHEM

Born in 1980 in Kaliningrad. Graduate of Moscow State Law Academy. From 1999 Shipov worked in the Ministry of Federation Affairs and national and migration policy. From 1998 he held positions of the lawyer, head of the legal service and Deputy Director of the center for legal support of local government. In 2007, he became the President of the center for public reforms AHO. At the same time, he was an expert on a number of commissions under the President. In 2008 he held the position of the Deputy Director, then Director of the Department for development of federal relations and local government of the Ministry of regional development of Russia. Since 2010 he was the Director of the Department of State Regulation of the economy of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia. From 2011 till 2016, he headed the Federal Accreditation Service. In June 2016, he was appointed the Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. From 2019 till 2020 he held the positions of the State Secretary – Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Economic Development. Candidate of Juridical Sciences.