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Putin to attend Valdai Club session Thurs, answer questions

In the morning, Peskov said, they will meet with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu. Putin is to join them in the afternoon

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, September 19 (Itar-Tass) - President Vladimir Putin will attend the 10th session of the Valdai discussion club on Thusday. Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that "Putin is scheduled to meet with the participants in the jubilee meeting, with political scientists."

In the morning, Peskov said, they will meet with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu. Putin is to join them in the afternoon.

"The President will address the audience, then participate in a panel discussion, answer questions, listen to the guests’ remarks, talk informally with the participants and give a dinner on his behalf," Peskov said.

Putin meets with Valdai Discussion Club members every year but this year’s format will be different. Instead of a traditional late dinner with foreign guests, the president will attend and speak at the final plenary session the theme of which will be "Russia's Diversity for the Modern World", a Kremlin press service official said..

Former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, former European Commission President Romano Prodi, former German Defence Minister Volker Ruhe, and Centre for the National Interest President Dimitri Simes will take part in the plenary session.

"Those present at the concluding plenary meeting are expected to sum up the results of the four day of the work of the Club which focused on matters relating to determining the identity of the people of Russia, a vision of Russia's future through the prism of regional, confessional, ethnic and value diversity, as well as through discussion of global factors that influence internal devrlopment. Participants also discussed the main trends in the development of Eurasia, Europe, and Asia. A separate session was devoted to the situation concerning Syria," the press service official said.

The 10th jubilee session of the Valdai Club has become the largest-scale and most widely representative in the ten-year record of the Club. The session is being attended by over 200 experts, intellectuals, political and public figures from 34 countries.

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