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The conference brought together academics, and religious and public figures from Russia, Belarus, Poland, Finland, Sweden, and Estonia, to discuss the dynamics of the religious situation in the North-Western Region. They also discussed interdisciplinary problems arising from the study of the religious situation there, the mutual influence of religious and ethnic identities, and the methods by which greater harmony between different ethnic and religious communities might counter ethnic and religious extremism.
Professor Sergey Lebedev, of the Department for Sociology and Youth Work, and head of the 'Centre for the Sociology of Religion', represented BNRU at the Conference. Also present were Archpriest Alexander Pelin, Chairman of the Diocesan Department on Church and Society, and Director of the Centre for Ethnic and Religious Studies, Mufti Ravil Pancheev, from the Muslim Spiritual Council for St. Petersburg and the North-West, and Lama Buda Badmaev, Abbot of a Buddhist temple in St. Petersburg.
Professor Lebedev set out his views on the sociological criteria around studying religiosity in the general population, at the plenary session of the Conference.