Past week, Russian politician and economist Dr. Grigory Yavlinsky visited Great Britain at hte invitaiton of Cambridge University. The main purpose of the trip was a lecture at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge University. Grigory Yavlinsky met with professors and students of the famous King’s College, and also visited Trinity College and St. John’s College.

Gonville & Caius College was founded in 1348, thirteen Nobel Prize winners, including four in the field of economics (Milton Friedman, Joseph Stiglitz, Sir John Hicks and Sir Richard Stone) as well as Sir James Chadwick, physicist, discoverer of the neutron, and The Baron Florey, co-developer of penicillin, were among its graduates. King’s College (founded in 1410) is represented in the world of science by six Nobel laureates, one of them, biochemist Frederick Sanger won the Nobel Prize twice. Trinity College (founded in 1546) is the absolute leader in the number of Nobel Prize winners, as 31 graduates and a member of the college became Nobel Prize winners. Among the famous alumni and staff of Trinity College were Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Lord Byron, Bertrand Russell and Vladimir Nabokov. Outstanding Russian physicist Pyotr Kapitsa also worked in this College. St. John’s College (1511) is famous by nine Nobel laureates and six prime ministers of different countries.

The founder of the YABLOKO party participated in academic discussions with experts from the Royal Institute of International Affairs — Chatham House, — and held a discussion with the key editors of the newspaper of business and political circles Financial Times, gave an interview to the BBC-World News, and also met with members of the House of Lords of the British Parliament.

The main topics of lectures, seminars and meeting of Grigory Yavlinsky in the UK were the urgent problems of economics and politics and the specifics of the world’s economic development due to political instability in Eastern Europe. Dr. Yavlinsky also presented in Cambridge and London his book «Realeconomik. The Hidden Cause of the Great Recession» published by Yale University Press.

The discussions also touched upon political causes and economic consequences of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Also at the invitation of Andrew Jack, Deputy Editor of the Analytical Depratment of Financial Times and Co-Chair of Pushkin House, Grigory Yavlinsky held an open public meeting in Pushkin House, London, and answered numerous questions. There were no empty seats in the hall, and the hall could not accommodate everyone who wished to attend. The discussion focused on the present stage of Russia’s development.

Dr.Grigory Yavlinsky is professor of the HIgher School of Economics, Moscow, and Chair of the Expert Council for Economic Reforms of Russian public organisation The New Economic Association.