REPORT – Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia would remain open to the outside, despite the signs to the contrary accumulated in recent months.
Correspondent in Moscow
Funny atmosphere at the three days of the International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg, the “Russian Davos”, which ends this Saturday. There are few or no Westerners – their stands are this year occupied by Russian companies – and, by contrast, visitors who are particularly noticeable: Africans, Asians – we come across a Burmese minister – and… the representative in Russia of the Taliban, popular with photographers. Participants who were less numerous than in previous years but an appearance of normality, with meetings and round tables, the famous “parties” of Saint Petersburg less. In fact, no, as one of the newspaper’s leading writers wrote on Friday morning. Kommersant, Andrei Kolesnikov. Because there will have been above all, a “elephant in the room” (a bear, in this case…): the war in Ukraine, absent from the official title of the conferences but in fact omnipresent. Vladimir Putin has also brought the beast into the Forum…
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