British Alumni Club
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Oksana Dmitrieva
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Early in May, the British Alumni Club, an off-shoot of the British Council, held a very informative evening at the British Embassy with Oksana Dmitrieva, the deputy leader of the Spravedlivaya Party in the Duma. Dmitrieva, a professional economist and former minister, is a member of the Duma’s Budget Committee. She spoke about the state of the Russian economy in the context of the present crisis, its priorities for development as her party sees them (less neftigas; more hi-tech), and about her conversations with the leadership who, she stressed, listen more willingly than their predecessors did in the 1990s. The audience was largely Russian. Both questions and answers were very detailed. Dmitriena ascribed the mistakes of current policymakers more to economic illiteracy than to personal favouritism, as has been alleged. Hopefully, more such meetings can be held in the embassy, where the atmosphere is calm and well-organised, yet hospitable.
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