LI Bureau member and Treasurer Robert Woodthorpe Browne was among the high level speakers on migration and assimilation at Yabloko (LI Full Member) Conference on 6th April in Moscow, Russia.

The event was opened by Party Leader Sergey Mitrokhin and Dr Astrid Thors, European Liberal Democrats — ALDE Party Vice President and former Migration Minister in the Finnish Government coming from the Swedish People’s Party (LI Full Member). Professor Grigoriy Alekseyevich Yavlinskiy addressed the gathering on the subject issues. He was particularly concerned at the potential knock-on effect of the proposed US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014. Input was provided by speakers from Swedish, Estonian, Moldovan, German and British liberals. LI Treasurer, Robert Woodthorpe Browne, described the UK situation and added an LI dimension.

There were useful interventions by representatives of CIS migrants, notably Uzbeks, and descriptions of crisis situations of depopulation from Yabloko leaders from Amur Region, Irkutsk and Vladivostok, where the wave of Chinese who had come looking for wealth has receded with China’s increasing prosperity. Corruption and slave labour were major themes and a Resolution was drawn up, which will be circulated at the LI Beirut Executive for information.