VIII International Political Economy Congress about Contradictions and Development Potential of the Russian Economic System

The review presents the reports at the VIII Buzgalin International Political Economy Congress (IPEC) “Russian Economic System: Contradictions and Development Potential” held in Moscow on 16-17 May 2024 within the framework of the Moscow AcademicEconomic Forum (MAEF), with the support of the International Committee of the Free Economic Society of Russia, the International Union of Economists, Vitte New Industrial Development Institute, the Faculty of Economics of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, the journal “Issues of Political Economy”, and Buzgalin Institute of Socio-Economy of Moscow Finance and Law University. The reports emphasize the generation of a new economic world order with the formation of new centers of dominance; the emergence of a new reproductive reality based on significant changes in material and financial flows. The authors express hypotheses regarding the formation of a new socio-economic model of social organization. Concerning the national economy, there were two major ideas: the need to actively use planning in economic policy and management and the technological re-equipment of the Russian economy. The first idea is related to overcoming the fragmented and haphazard initiatives of the country's leadership on breakthrough development, inefficiency and wastefulness in the expenditure of public resources allocated for these purposes. The second one is related to the analysis of the technological backwardness of the Russian economy. Many speakers expressed concern about the current situation of political economy that is excluded from the educational process and deprived of state support. It was noted that the lack of a substitutional alternative has affected the level and quality of theoretical analyses and assessments of global developments in the world and national economies. Political economy could serve to restore one of the main target principles of domestic economic education – fundamentality, which, according to V.A. Sadovnichy, rector of Moscow State University, consists in mastering the laws of nature and society and the ability to apply them in practice.