St. Petersburg Economic forum to suffer due to War

St. Petersburg, Jun 13: Vladimir Putin's annual economic forum in St. Petersburg was always a hot ticket for Russian and foreign business tycoons eager to curry favor with the Kremlin by hosting glitzy parties or announcing major investments. His invasion of Ukraine has made it a radioactive one. 

 

 

Many business leaders are concerned about even being seen at this year's St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, fearful it may make them targets for sanctions, three people familiar with the situation said, declining to be identified because the issue is sensitive. At least two executives said they plan to leave early to avoid attending Putin's speech at the event, which in past years was the highlight for the well-connected.

 

 

 

Some have asked the organizers, Roscongress, not to identify them on their badges at the June 15-18 SPIEF forum, the people said. Roscongress didn't respond to requests to comment. Even as Russia contends with unprecedented international sanctions that threaten its deepest economic recession in decades, officials are projecting a business-as-usual approach for the 25th-anniversary event under the slogan of "new opportunities in a new world." The confrontation with the West that has escalated at times to warnings of nuclear war gets barely a mention on SPIEF's website, though foreign visitors are told to bring cash since sanctions mean Mastercard and Visa bank cards issued outside Russia won't work there. Russia used previous forums to "demonstrate the success of the country" while business leaders could show they have "connections and money," said Ekaterina Schulmann, a political scientist and fellow at Germany's Robert Bosch Academy who moderated discussion panels at last year's SPIEF. This year, "if domestic participants don't all want to demonstrate their participation, then foreign ones even more so," said Schulmann, who's been labeled a "foreign agent" by the Kremlin. Before the war, Russian tycoons and state-run companies competed to out-do each other by flying in entertainers like Sting and Robbie Williams, whose "Party Like a Russian" song caught the extravagant mood of SPIEF's late-night scene. Most of the same tycoons and companies are now under US and European Union sanctions and few parties are planned this time.

 

Also Read: 800 Ukrainians trapped in Azot Factory in Severodonetsk 

 

Putin's flagship event once attracted global political figures such as French President Emmanuel Macron, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This time, it's hosting an Afghan Taliban representative, according to the Tass news service, the investment minister from Myanmar's military government, and the head of Venezuela's central bank, all heavily-sanctioned countries.