For years, Russia has hosted world leaders and business titans at the annual economic forum in St. Petersburg, but this time the "Russian Davos" will be attended by a small number of the global financial elite, given that Moscow is isolated by sanctions.
This week, to make up for the lack of participants who embody Western economic power, Russia is giving a special place to smaller players or countries like China - the world's second largest economy - that have not joined the sanctions, writes Reuters.
"Foreign investors are not only from the United States and the European Union," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters yesterday, pointing to the Middle East and Asia.
"Such investors and entrepreneurs are interested and will actively participate in the forum."
This year, Putin will not have any traditional meetings with political and business leaders from the US and Europe
The Kremlin launched the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in 1994 to attract foreign investment, discuss economic policy and demonstrate that it was open for business after the fall of Soviet communist rule.
Russia has long compared SPIEF to the World Economic Forum, an annual event in the Swiss resort of Davos where the global elite discuss world problems.
Now, as Western leaders ignore cooperation with Russia, President Vladimir Putin will not have any traditional meetings with political and business powerhouses from the US and Europe.
Reuters writes that the published SPIEF schedule, which takes place from June 15 to 18, does not include the names of US and European companies or their CEOs, reflecting "fear of punishment under the most extensive sanctions regime ever imposed on a major forces".
The list does not even include companies that continued to operate in Russia despite the general exodus of Western investors.
An exception is the address of the head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia together with colleagues from France and Italy, at tomorrow's session "Western investors in Russia: New reality".
Sanctions are in the long run. Globalization as it used to be is over. The world is likely to be once again strictly divided into 'us' and 'them'
Amid the drastic deterioration of Russia's relations with the West since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, SPIEF will look much different this year.
While Russia once rolled out the red carpet for the likes of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former IMF chief Christine Lagarde, Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein, Citigroup's Vikram Pandit and ExxonMobil's Rex Tillerson, the place of honor this week is reserved for the presidents of Kazakhstan's allies. and Armenia.
While foreign companies are writing off billions of their once promising investments in Russia, domestic firms and banks are rushing to take over the remaining business, writes Reuters.
"Sanctions are in the long run. Globalization as it used to be is over," Andrey Kostin, executive director of Russia's second-largest VTB bank, which is under sanctions, told the business daily RBK. "The world is likely to be once again strictly divided into 'us' and 'them'".
In past years, SPIEF sessions have focused on investment-oriented topics such as privatization in Moscow, initial public offerings (IPOs) and education of Russians abroad.
This year's official title of SPIEF is "New Opportunities in a New World". Topics include new opportunities for Russian economic growth, improving trade with the five non-Western BRICS powers and the future of Russia's sanctions-hit financial sector.
Session "A new form of international cooperation: how will payments be made?" - concerns the expulsion of Russia from the SWIFT global payment system and its attempt to avoid the ban by demanding that its gas be paid for in rubles. Speakers from Cuba, Venezuela, Turkey and Egypt, which also did not impose sanctions, will participate.
Reuters says there will even be a session on "fake news" - a panel attended by state media, state prosecutors and foreign ministry officials as Moscow wages an information war on the West to shape perceptions of events in Ukraine.
"Everything has changed in the past half year - from business management schemes and investment priorities to people's needs and problems to be solved," reads a summary of one of the SPIEF sessions.
Money likes silence more than ever
Among the countries whose officials will attend or address via video link are China, Belarus, the Central African Republic, India, Iran, Nicaragua, Serbia and the United Arab Emirates.
According to Russian state television, business figures from nearly 130 countries will participate despite the sanctions.
Some participants of the forum requested that the names of their employers not be printed on their personal badges, RBC reported, citing the state-owned company Roskongres, which organizes the forum.
"Money likes silence now like never before," said Denis Denisov, head of the Russian branch of the international consulting firm EM.
"People don't like to talk about their business or the anti-crisis measures they are taking at SPIEF, where they will be in the spotlight, because they are afraid of personal sanctions ... and the risk of direct and secondary sanctions against their business."
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