In previous years, leaders from around the world, both public and private, gathered at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), a kind of “Russian Davos”, to reconcile with Russia’s elite economic class. the attendee list is sparse. Some of the notable attendees range from the Taliban to Putin’s right-hand man in Belarus, Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko, whose presence comes as no surprise. The president of Kazakhstan – who, like Belarus, is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) under Russia, the Russian version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) – was to address the plenary session. Chinese President Xi Jinping is also ready to hold a teleconference with the club. “This is the fifth year I have been working on the forum and the atmosphere has never been so tense,” a confab official told The Moscow Times. SPIEF started as a way to start foreign investment in 1997. And the conference, now celebrating its 25th anniversary, is self-proclaimed this year as “one of the biggest and most important business events in the world” and “a leading international event . “ But the hidden current in the conference is that something is wrong. Only “friendly” countries will send delegations this year amid war, said Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, according to Vedomosti. The largest delegation and the honorary delegation of “guests” will come from Egypt, according to Ushakov. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov tried to defend the downgraded conference. “Foreign investors are not just coming from the United States and the European Union,” Peshkov was quoted as saying by Reuters. “It is difficult to get to St. Petersburg for objective reasons,” Ushakov admitted, citing a possible reference to the fact that many Western nations have severely curtailed Russian airspace because of Putin’s war in Ukraine. Many business leaders are worried that attending the conference will mean targeting them for further Western sanctions, Bloomberg reported. Even the conference program lists are almost miserable. The program of the forum mentions little about the war in Ukraine, noting on the one hand “new conditions” and on the other a “new environment” for the Russian financial sector. The program regrets the “anti-Russian sanctions” and raises many desperate questions, such as “How will the Russian financial system develop under the new circumstances?” And “How can we stimulate investment in the Russian economy?” According to the Biden administration, Putin could simply end the war. But the program continues. The “resilience and flexibility of the Russian financial system” has been “severely tested” by sanctions imposed by the United States and Western nations on Russia over the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the program said, without mentioning the war. The program even acknowledges how openly vulnerable the Russian cybersecurity sector is as a result of the invasion of Ukraine. “The rapid exit of companies and ecosystems from Russia has shown how vulnerable our resilience to cyberspace is,” the program said in a statement condemning a statement by United States National Security Agency Director General Paul Nakasone, who also leads the offensive unit. Pentagon, Cyber. Administration, which confirmed that the Biden government conducted aggressive operations in support of Ukraine. “The allegations made by the US government regarding its involvement in cyber attacks from inside Ukraine are also worrying,” the program said. Russia’s degraded economic forum will conclude with remarks by Putin himself. He plans to deliver a speech focused on strengthening “foreign investment and trade relations,” Ushakov said.
