The venue of the event was not chosen by chance — after all, one of the main tasks facing the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry is to help entrepreneurs of the capital to enter international markets, including the German ones.
Ms. Olga Zinovieva, the President of the Society “Russia-Germany”, in her report, which she called "We are building bridges from the barricades", said that under rather difficult political conditions, lacking financial and organizational resources, the management and activists of the Society have made consistent efforts to maintain and deepen dialogue between business, cultural, scientific, educational circles and the representatives of student unions of both countries. Steps have been taken to establish effective cooperation with the German-Russian Forum, “the St. Petersburg Dialogue”, the Federal Union of German Societies West-East, and the association of related Cities.
Effective support to the Society is provided on a permanent basis by the Zinoviev Club, MIA "Russia Today", the library community of Moscow, and museums.
Cooperation with Bavarian partners has been successfully developing, a significant example of which was the representative conference on bilateral economic cooperation, held in April 2019, in Munich, which was co-organized by the Society. Other social, political and cultural events, held both in Germany and Russia, including those supported by the Russian World Foundation, the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences and other organizations, also deserve a positive evaluation. By tradition, special attention was paid to joint commemorative events with the veteran organization GSVG-ZGV and the Musa Jalil Memorial Day Project Support Fund. During the four years under review, a total of more than one hundred different events were held.
The event was attended by representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry, diplomatic corps, scientific and educational circles, entrepreneurs from Russia and Germany.
All speakers noted the need for further development of friendly relations between Russia and Germany. As Mikhail Shvydkoy ( a Soviet and Russian theatre critic, social and political activist, Laureate of the State Prize of Russia) noted in his speech, "There are political, economic and cultural layers of relations. But all this does not replace friendship between people".
The President of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Vladimir Platonov, said: "There exists a good paradigm not to feed those who live near the lake, replete with fish — they should be given fishing rods. The Moscow City Government, the Moscow City Parliament, the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry have jointly created excellent conditions for doing business in the city, including entrepreneurs from Germany". The Head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry noted that the Chamber intends to develop mutually beneficial cooperation in all pertinent areas and on all levels. Mr. Platonov said that several years ago, Siemens shared with its Russian colleagues developments in the field of compliance. "Now it is no longer exotic, everybody knows what this word means, and Moscow’s companies are implementing this system of counteracting corruption and violations within their companies", - said Mr. Platonov. He emphasized that a new social structure had recently emerged in the MCCI, a Committee that would address issues of compliance and business ethics.
The conference elected new leadership of the Society and was concluded in informal, congenial, warm and friendly atmosphere.