Russian-Swedish Round Table

On 23 April, 2003, at the White Nights health resort in Setroretsk near Saint-Petersburg, Mikhail Gorbachev officially opened a Russian-Swedish Round Table with a theme Guarantee of Individual Freedom is a Safeguard of Democracy for All.
Among the participants in the Round Table activities were representatives of the Swedish Riksdag and the Social-Democratic Party of Sweden, Coordinators of the Open Government Project, Ms. May Andersson, Consul General of Sweden in Saint-Petersburg, Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Social-Democratic party of Russia, deputies of the Russian State Duma and of the Saint-Petersburg Legislative Assembly, and officials from the Saint-Petersburg Mayor’s Office.
The issues discussed included: safeguarding individual rights and freedoms in Russia and Sweden; responsibility of a citizen to the society and the state; and analysis of the experience of shaping democracy in the world community.
The Round Table was organized on the initiative of the social-democratic parties of Russia and Sweden and was held within the framework of the international conference Russia – Sweden The State, Society, and Individual: Theory and Practice.