A major conference on transition to the market economy tomorrow and Monday will be attended by Russian political and business leaders, including two former prime ministers and the chairman of the Russian central bank.
The conference in Dublin is organised by the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, and the Association of Russian Banks, in co-operation with other official Russian institutions.
The meeting will be opened by the Russian ambassador to Ireland, Mr Yevgeny Mikhailov, and will feature presentations on the general political and economic situation in Russia by two former prime ministers, Mr Sergei Stepashin and Mr Sergei Kiriyenko, the Minister of Labour and Social Development, Mr Alexander Pochinok, and the first deputy secretary of the Security Council of Russia, Mr Mikhail Fradkov.
Mr Stepashin, a former head of the KGB's successor agency, is now chairman of the Accounting Chamber of Russia. Mr Kiriyenko has taken over as the special representative of President Putin in the Volga region which includes Russia's third largest city Nizhny Novgorod, formerly the closed city of Gorky.
Also addressing the conference tomorrow morning will be the chairman of the Russian Central Bank, Mr Viktor Gerashenko, Mr Alexander Shokhin, and Mr Ivan Materov, first deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade.
The conference will be attended by over 100 of the most important political and economic leaders in Russia including representatives of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, the ministries of Finance, Economy, Trade, Taxation, Foreign Affairs and the Russian Academy of Sciences. Delegates will be addressed on Monday by the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise and Development, Ms Harney, on "Economic development in Ireland, past experience and prospects".
Other Irish participants will include Mr David Donoghue, the Irish ambassador to Russia, Mr Maurice O'Connell, governor of the Central Bank, Mr James Bardon, general manager of the Irish Bankers Federation, and Mr Bill Maxwell director and general manager of Aerofirst, the Aer Rianta-Aeroflot joint venture which runs the duty-free operation at Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport.
