[1] The forum, which targeted foreign experts, was established in 2009 by Medvedev, who determined that Valdai Discussion Club was too closely linked to Vladimir Putin.

[2] The Yaroslavl Forum was organized around Medvedev's birthday, which occurred around the same time as Putin's Valdai conference.

[3] Medvedev gave significant speeches at the forum, including a speech at the September 2010 forum (entitled "The Modern State: Standards of Democracy and Criteria of Efficiency"),[4] in which Medvedev "told a large audience of academics, politicians, and economists ... that parliamentary democracy would provide a 'catastrophe' for Russia" by leading to social upheaval and turmoil.

[5] Among the notable persons who attended the forums were Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and American Nobel laureate economic Paul Krugman,[1] and Michael McFaul.

[6] The conferences were "largely presented as the Russian equivalent of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos.