Panelists, including ELDR's Russian party leaders, Sergey Mitrokhin, Yaboloko, and Mikhail Kasyanov, People's Democratic Union, agreed that the specter of Stalin's Russia is still hanging over modern day society and is preventing the country from initiating the reforms that are needed to facilitate its development, including strengthening its ties with the European Union. 

Sergey Mitrokhin spoke about telling Russian President Medvedev the importance of publically acknowledging that Stalinism is in the past. Mitrokhin referred to what he called a "hankering for former times" that is pervading the thoughts of Russian citizens as the present government fails to deliver the reforms that are necessary for the country to proposer in the 21^st century. 

Referring to the "imperial ambitions" that still remain in the Russian leadership, Mikhail Kasyanov, lamented the lack of civil society and the reluctance of people to actively engage themselves in politically opposing the government (because they are frightened to do so) as factors that allow the authorities to retain these ambitions as goals for the present day.

The two liberal leaders were united in the view that it is their role to raise awareness amongst Russian people that there are alternatives to the Putin-Medvedev cycle and to put pressure on the Russian government for free and fair elections that can bring real and lasting reform to a country whose leaders prefer to dwell on the past rather than embrace the present.