Star worlds

Dmitry Medvedev makes his debut at the World Economic Forum in Davos

The next World Economic Forum kicked off on Wednesday in the Swiss resort town of Davos. This year, the main topics of this half-secular, half-political summit of the world's richest and most powerful people include global warming and energy policy, and the slogan of Davos 2007 was “shifting the global balance of power.” This general phrase, however, can be applied to almost any problem - from the economic and political rise of the once “second” tier countries (India, China, Brazil) to changes in the energy market.

For the first time in a long time, Russia sent a very respectable delegation of officials, politicians and businessmen to the forum, although in recent years the Moscow political elite was not too eager to go to Davos. The forum, by the way, reciprocated our feelings: the surge in fashion for post-Yeltsin Russia that happened in the early 2000s quickly passed, and when interest in us faded, new, hitherto unnoticed heroes came to the fore. Last January, for example, Davos appeared on the front pages of Russian newspapers mainly because, due to an internal government conflict, our delegation had to do without Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. Then his trip abroad was “cut down” by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov.

This time the Russian delegation turned out to be both representative and intriguing: First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev went to Switzerland, accompanied by a number of ministers. Naturally, the press and political scientists are presenting this as a presentation to the world economic and political elite of a potential “successor”, a “rising star of politics,” as Mr. Medvedev was certified by Agence France-Presse. Whether this is true or not, one cannot help but admit that such a practice is quite widespread: in 2004, Mikheil Saakashvili showed himself to the city of Davos and the world, and a year later, Viktor Yushchenko completed his European tour here. Ukraine, by the way, is represented almost at the highest level this time: the World Economic Forum was attended by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who, according to the new constitution, has more power than the president.

However, so far the main events of Davos are not directly related to Russia. On the first day of the forum, Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel acted as leader. Berlin begins a year of presiding over the G8 and will serve as head of the EU until July, so any statement by Mrs. Merkel now weighs at least twice as much as usual. The Chancellor's speech, as expected, was programmatic and therefore comprehensive: the head of the German government touched on almost all currently popular topics - from climate change and the integration of African states into the global economy to ensuring energy security and Germany's contribution to the globalization process. The topic of Russia as the main supplier of fuel to Europe was not directly touched upon, although Mrs. Merkel mentioned that, in her opinion, “the oil and gas market should be predictable.”

Yesterday, the most quoted guest at the mountain resort was Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, representing the Shiite community of this country. He very harshly criticized the policies of Baghdad and Washington and, in particular, said that the occupation of Iraq was an “idiotic decision.” Another intrigue of Davos is the fact that the forum has become a convenient place for negotiations between Israel and Palestine: Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Deputy Prime Minister of this country Shimon Peres and President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas arrived here.

In addition, a meeting is scheduled for Saturday between the Director General of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy, and representatives of three dozen leading countries in the world that are members of the WTO. The parties will try to somehow break the deadlock in which the WTO is now firmly stuck (the last summits of this global trade union hopelessly failed). But US Trade Representative Susan Schwab, who arrived in Davos, did not express much hope that Saturday's meeting would produce a noticeable result. She said that she does not believe that any breakthrough will happen in this area in the near future. However, she did not rule out that leading countries could lay some kind of foundation in Davos for progress in the future.

Vladimir DZAGUTO