St. Petersburg Economic Forum: No major Western investor, but with a Taliban representative

The World Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, which began yesterday, is not attended by any major Western investors, writes the website Agenstvo, which studied the program of the forum, noting that out of more than 100 Russian billionaires participate only six.

Compared to previous years, writes the Russian service of the BBC – when the high visitors were the heads of Asian and European states (for example, the President of China Xi Jinping, or the French President Emmanuel Macron) this year does not participate in the St. Petersburg forum None of the Western leaders, with the exception of one, was Kazakh President Qasim Zomart Tokayev, who recently visited Moscow to attend the Collective Security Treaty Organization summit.

But while Western leaders will be absent from the forum, in the corridors of the World Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, one can meet the representative of the Taliban, which in Russia is characterized as a terrorist organization, which will be temporarily authorized in Afghanistan in Moscow.

The forum is attended by the presidents of the self-proclaimed “People’s Republics” of Donetsk and Lugansk.

One of the prominent figures in the forum is the president of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” Denis Pushilin. Yesterday, Wednesday, together with the governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Beglov, announced the opening of the forum with a cannon, while today the Russian media reproduce his statement that the so-called military operation in Ukraine may be completed by the end of the year.

Last week, the State Department announced that the US government would not participate in the forum in any capacity and called on companies and governments in other countries to boycott the forum. “We want to send a clear message that there will be no ‘business as usual’ as long as Russian forces are attacking Ukraine,” said Ned Price, a spokesman for the ministry.

Some companies, as the Russian newspaper RBK writes, fearing the sanctions, asked the organization of the forum to hide as much as possible that their representatives will participate in the forum. For example, they requested that their company name not be mentioned.

Central Bank President Elvira Nabiulina, Russian President Maxim Oreskin’s adviser and Economic Development Minister Anton Siluanov spoke at the forum this morning. Nabulina said that the conditions for the Russian economy “have changed for a long time, if not forever” and now production must be directed to the internal market, Interfax reports.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to address the forum tomorrow.

The forum in St. Petersburg is being held this year for the first time after two years of pandemic. The previous forum was attended by CEOs of multinational companies, big Western businessmen and politicians, while the plenary sessions were moderated by well-known Western journalists.

Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ