OREANDA-NEWS. September 24, 2012. Herman Gref, CEO and Chairman of the Board, Sberbank of Russia, moderated the interactive session "The Future of Russia" held as part of ninth Yalta Annual Meeting entitled "Ukraine and the World: Overcoming Tomorrow's Challenges Together". During the event, the participants discussed major economic and political challenges for Russia in this decade. The session involved leading business and government representatives from Russia and Ukraine, reported the press-centre of Sberbank.

Major challenges to economic growth in Russia examined by the participants included such issues as the improvement of investment climate, modernization and innovation economy, risk management, anti-crisis policies, creation of International Financial Center and development of human capital. The domestic political challenges mentioned at the session included political reform, good governance, corruption and decentralization of power. The participants pointed out to the growing influence of China, construction of the Eurasian Union, asset swaps between Russia and the West, relations with Ukraine and other CIS countries, and the influence in the Middle East as the major challenges for Russian foreign policy.

The ninth Yalta Annual Meeting entitled "Ukraine and the World: Overcoming Tomorrow's Challenges Together" was held on September 13 -16, 2012, at the Livadia Palace in Yalta. This event was organized by Yalta European Strategy (YES) in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. The discussion of major global challenges and their impact on Europe, Ukraine and the world involved 200 leading representatives of politics, business and society from more than 20 countries.