At SPIEF, an intrigue arose with Putin’s main interlocutor

On June 14, half of Moscow moves to St. Petersburg for three days, where SPIEF opens – the most important and large-scale forum in the lineup. Here they discuss not only the economy, but also current political issues, and Vladimir Putin traditionally acts as the main speaker. This year, for the first time since the pandemic, private parties and celebrity concerts will be available to participants and guests. However, the organizers have not yet clarified one of the key issues – which of the world leaders will accompany the Russian president.

In the program of this year’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, one can find many related and even very far from the main issues topics, as they say, “for every taste and color.” In addition to the economy, the participants are going to discuss traditional values, sovereignty in all its possible manifestations (the forum is held under the motto “Sovereign development is the basis of a just world”), healthy food, and also “why Europeans choose the Russian Federation” for work and life.

Russia’s long-term development strategy at the Horizon 2040 session will be discussed by First Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Belousov and philosopher, political scientist and sociologist Alexander Dugin.

The correct upbringing of children and the feminine principle in the future world order will be discussed by Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova and senators Galina Karelova and Inna Svyatenko. Saxophonist Igor Buntman, Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky and Vyacheslav Fetisov will talk about the mythology of our days.

The forum will also tell you how to shoot “Girls”, “Big Break” and industrial cinema in general in a new way. And pranksters Vovan and Lexus will explain how to deal with fakes and share their experience of political pranks with the delegates.

With closed borders, a real full house is expected at the session … about autotravel. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov, Presidential Aide Igor Levitin, and several governors will share their thoughts on this topic. In terms of the number of VIPs, autotourism can only be compared with the main economic discussion of the SPIEF, which will bring together the traditional composition – the head of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina, the heads of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economics, Putin’s assistant Maxim Oreshkin, and as a moderator – State Duma deputy Andrei Makarov, who knows how to create the necessary drama for such discussions.

The economic agenda of the forum is replete with issues that have become especially relevant after the start of the NWO. These are de-dollarization, import substitution, the development of new transport corridors, the production of drones and parallel imports. Participants are expected to sum up the first results and outline their nearest plans. Cursed in the recent past, cryptocurrency mining is now positioned by the compilers of the program as the “white swan of the Russian economy.” Separate discussions will be devoted to Islamic banking and the development of the halal industry in Russia.

In general, the organizers of the SPIEF decided to abandon such concepts associated with the Anglo-Saxons and the “collective West” as globalism and liberalism. Instead, officials and experts will discuss building a “new type of world economy” – “not global, but interconnected”, where political and regional factors have more weight.

Since the forum is still international, part of the panel discussions will be devoted to Russia’s cooperation with other countries. However, the list of such events, for obvious reasons, has been noticeably reduced.

The main guest of SPIEF-2023 is the United Arab Emirates – usually the head of state came to Russia on such an occasion. But this year, everything is not clear. So far, the UAE is represented in the program by the Minister of Economy and the Deputy Minister of Industry – these are, frankly, not even second parties. However, the organizers do not exclude that the level of participation may still increase: “Contacts through diplomatic channels between Moscow and Dubai are still ongoing.”

China will send an ambassador, the SCO Secretary General and several businessmen to St. Petersburg. Latin America will be represented by the Prime Minister of Cuba, the Special Representative of the President of Nicaragua and the Minister of National Economy of Venezuela. India has the lowest representation: so far, only the heads of pharmaceutical companies operating in the Russian Federation have been announced in the program.

Earlier, Western media, citing Russian officials, indicated that foreigners register for SPIEF 2023 not very willingly and in much smaller numbers than in previous years. However, correspondents from unfriendly countries will not be able to cover the forum itself – by decision of the presidential administration, they were denied accreditation.

Vladimir Putin will traditionally visit the forum on Friday, June 16. Of all such events on the president’s schedule, SPIEF is always the most significant: here the head of state not only delivers a large-scale speech, which, as a rule, contains important innovations for citizens and businesses, but also participates in discussions on a wide range of not only economic, but also political topics.

At one time, the chancellors of Germany and Austria, the prime minister of Italy, the president of France, the president of China, the head of India and other world leaders became interlocutors of the Russian president. Last year, the main guest of SPIEF was the head of Kazakhstan, Kassym Zhomart-Tokayev – his polemical statements, in particular, the refusal to recognize the Donbass as Russian, provided political scientists with food for thought at least until the end of summer. Now Tokayev is not going to St. Petersburg, and who will be the main interlocutor of Vladimir Putin is an intrigue. At the time of signing the issue, the Kremlin has not clarified this issue.