"The citizens of G8 countries should not think that the forthcoming summit is a purely political event, where only global issues are discussed. All questions proposed for the summit in St. Petersburg are directly related to the lives of common people", - Aide to the Russian President Igor Shuvalov.

On March 9, an international forum of non-governmental organizations "Civil G8" opened in Moscow.

More than three hundred representatives of NGO's from 35 countries and Russia take part in the forum. The goal of the forum is to work out NGO's recommendations on the general agenda of Russia's presidency in the "Group of Eight' and to lay the foundation of a direct dialogue between civil organizations and G8 representatives. Working groups, held in the course of the forum, discuss the issues of energy security, education, fighting infectious diseases, business, international trade, development, WMD nonproliferation and fighting terrorism, peace settlement of regional conflicts and others. "Sherpas", personal representatives of the G8 countries' leaders, also took part in the work of the forum. Working groups are to draft recommendations, which will be submitted to the G8 countries' leaders.

PIR Center experts take part in the work of the forum: Deputy Director Anton Khlopkov; Deputy Director for Development and External Relations Sergei Musankov, who participated in the sessions of a working group on fighting the spread of infectious diseases; PIR Center Advisory Board member Iladr Akhtamzyan, who took part in the work of group on WMD nonproliferation. Global Partnership Project Coordinator Daniil Kobyakov, who joined the editorial board on developing recommendations for the working group on WMD nonproliferation, terrorism and regional conflicts, presided at the group's session on March 10, 2006.

A meeting and consultations of the Forum's participants with sherpas of all G8 countries' leaders took place on March 9, 2006. Speaking before the audience, the Russian sherpa, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation Igor Shuvalov noted: "It is important that the citizens of G8 countries should not think that the forthcoming summit is a purely political event, where only global issues are discussed. All questions submitted to the summit are directly related to the lives of common people". Igor Shuvalov remarked: "We proceeded from the premise that the topics submitted to the summit should have a historical foundation and a first-rate importance for all the countries". According to him, the most acute issue nowadays is the question of energy security, which has a "great significance for the whole world".

More detailed information on the international forum is available at the website of Civil G8 http://www.civilg8.ru/. PIR Center is planning to take an active part in the events organized by the "Civil G8" in the year of Russia's presidency in the "Group of Eight". PIR Center conference "G8 Global Security Agenda: Challenges & Interests. Towards the St.-Petersburg Summit" that is taking place in Moscow on April 20-22, was added to the list of Russian NGO's scheduled events in the year of Russia's "Group of Eight" presidency and all pertaining information was posted at the "Civil G8" website.

More information on the PIR Center Conference can be found at the Conference's website http://www.pircenter.org/g8conference/eng

• Preliminary agenda can be found here
• Info on sponsorship opportunities can be found here

Additional information on Russia's G8 presidency can be found at PIR-Center website, in 2006 Summit section: http://www.pircenter.org/G8_2006/eng/index_e.html