Yaroslavl forum has worked out well – Dmitry Medvedev

President Dmitry Medvedev has said that the recent Global Policy Forum in Russia’s city of Yaroslavl was a success.

“In my opinion, the forum worked out well; it was interesting,” he said during a Saturday meeting with the leaders of the political parties and factions represented in the State Duma, the parliamentary lower house.

Addressing the participants, Medvedev said that their “speeches and speeches of the political analysts were very meaningful.”

He also said that he believes it is really important that Russia has now got such a global venue, “where we can discuss problems of democracy and the development of the political system, rather than just economics, as it is a common practice in other places.”

“And most importantly, the proceedings are conducted in a completely open mode,” Medvedev added.

This year’s forum – entitled “The Modern State: Standards of Democracy and Criteria of Efficiency”- was held in Yaroslavl on September 9-10. It gathered politicians, businessmen and political analysts from about 35 countries who discussed issues of democracy, security, international law and modernization.

During Saturday’s meeting with the Duma factions’ leaders, Medvedev also touched upon the single voting day scheduled for October 10 this year when regional parliaments’ deputies , heads of municipal entities and towns will be elected in some regions. The Russian president said he hopes that all the changes in election legislation will be approved and that they will resolve the existing concerns about elections.

“I guess the doubts that you have will be removed and we will enter the elections more lined up,” he said.

According to State Duma Deputy Speaker Ivan Melnikov, first deputy chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, it was also agreed to further improve the legislation on voting in Russia.

“We noted that a package of proposals that the president submitted a year ago in his nationwide address to the Federal Assembly in order to improve election legislation was approved by the State Duma and supported by all factions,” he said, cited Itar-Tass. However, he added, the commission that was established to work on the issue and which involved representatives of all parties stopped its work.

“We succeeded in insisting the commission continue its activities. The opposition has its proposals on further reform of election legislation and they should be aimed at searching for a compromise," Melnikov said. According to the opposition representative, Medvedev has agreed that the commission should continue its work.

The modernization – in particular, the innovation center in Skolkovo – became yet another topic of discussion at the meeting with parties’ leaders. Dmitry Medvedev stressed that is it time to complete the work on the project of Russia’s analog of the “Silicon Valley”.

“I believe this issue unites all of us. I hope we will work on it together,” he said.

Medvedev also stressed that it is necessary to support agricultural producers and not to lose the recent achievements.

“Our task is not to waste all that has been done in agriculture over the past few years,” he said.

As for the food market, the president said the current situation is under control, but there are some problems. For example, he appealed to the parties’ leaders to control the prices in this market.