Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Dmitry Medvedev: Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, I could not miss this opportunity to meet with you during our innovation forum. I do not have any prepared speech, and I have already said everything I wanted to say at the forum. But, given that among the meeting participants are representatives of large and medium businesses, both Russian and foreign, as well as members of the scientific community, it would be interesting to me to hear your opinions on the situation in our country, and what you think needs to be changed. I would like to ask both Russian and foreign participants what trends you think will define the development of the innovation sphere in accordance with the slogan of the forum, up to 2030, or for some other term. Let’s just speak about what should be done, about what you have seen and what you are yet to see.

I would like to wind up my speech here as I find it more important and beneficial to listen to you. It is a bit noisy here, but there is a working atmosphere nonetheless – and this is good, as it is less formal than it usually is at meetings in official buildings and institutions. I would like to ask everyone who is eager to speak to take the floor and speak up your mind.

More to be posted soon...