Forbes at the main Russian economic summit

The second day of the international economic forum has arrived in St. Petersburg - the main Russian summit, held for the second year in a row in the context of a new “cold war” with the West. The day before, participants discussed problems of economics, politics, media and other key topics on the national and global agenda. Read more in the first part of our online broadcast and Andrey Litvinov’s material “Political Forum” . Everything important that will go down in history on the second day of SPIEF 2015 is in this material.

19.06.2015

It was a busy morning at the forum. In particular, there was a business breakfast traditionally rich in loud statements, organized annually by Sberbank and its President German Gref, one of the most prominent SPIEF speakers.

19.06.2015

The political agenda does not let go: the first interview of this morning is Ramzan Kadyrov about the investigation into the murder of Boris Nemtsov:

19.06.2015

By the way, the head of Chechnya arrived at Lenexpo this morning together with one of the largest entrepreneurs representing the republic, Ruslan Baysarov .

19.06.2015

Maria Abakumova, Forbes editor : “At a session on the prospects for cooperation between Russia and the United States, the head of the City in Russia, Irakli Mtibelishvili: “For the United States, Russia is one of the largest consumers of capital. In a good year, $80-100 billion comes to Russia, tens of billions of them from the United States. It is quite difficult to replace Russia in this market - neither Turkey nor other countries are capable of this.”

19.06.2015

Andrey Litvinov, Forbes editor :

“At the Sberbank breakfast, former Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin recalled that in the spring of 2015, many enterprises introduced part-time work, hoping to wait out the summer, but, according to the ex-official, it will not be easier in the fall, more serious decisions on layoffs can be expected.

Alexander Oslon, head of the FOM, said that when asked whether there is a crisis in Russia, 80% of entrepreneurs and 78% of the population answered “yes”. To the question “Do you approve of retaliatory sanctions?” — both business and the population answered “yes” by 62%.

Russian Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukaev, at the same breakfast, for his part, quoted Adam Smith: “All that is needed for happiness is peace and low taxes.”

19.06.2015

There is very little time left to wait for the main event of the day: Vladimir Putin is about to give a keynote speech at the SPIEF plenary session “Time to act: working together to achieve sustainable growth.”

19.06.2015

Another interview on the sidelines of the forum with the leader of the North Caucasus republic - this time it is the head of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.

19.06.2015

On the sidelines of the summit, Lukoil President Vagit Alekperov shared his forecast for oil prices: in his opinion, a barrel by the end of 2015 will fluctuate in the range of $60-65. reports this TASS .

19.06.2015

Another statement by Alekperov is about the Spartak football club: the owner of Lukoil denied rumors that he, and not his business partner Leonid Fedun , is the real owner of the team. According to the billionaire, he does not have any special influence on the FC and will not replace Fedun as chairman of the club’s board of directors.

19.06.2015

On the eve of Vladimir Putin’s meeting on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum with a rare high-status European guest in these times—Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras—high-ranking officials are increasingly commenting on the likelihood of Russia providing financial assistance to Athens. In particular, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich did not rule out such a possibility. True, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov immediately hastened to make a reservation: no final decisions have been made yet.

19.06.2015

This is what Sberbank’s business breakfast looked like at SPIEF 2015. The inseparable pair of forum speakers - Alexey Kudrin and German Gref - are in place. Photo TASS/SPIEF.

19.06.2015

And here we have the first dissenter: Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukaev, in an interview with Ekho Moskvy, spoke out against yesterday’s high-profile idea of Alexei Kudrin to hold early presidential elections to give Vladimir Putin a popular mandate for structural reforms. “No one is stopping the authorities from taking responsibility for carrying out structural reforms,” the head of the Ministry of Economic Development snapped.

19.06.2015

Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh, on the sidelines of the forum, denied rumors that the company plans to curtail its presence in the Turkish market, where the Russian Internet giant got involved in a fight with Google “on a foreign field” and since 2011 has been making so far unsuccessful attempts to break the search hegemony American corporation.

19.06.2015

Officials never tire of sending business positive signals from the forum. Thus, Assistant to the Russian President for Economic Affairs Andrei Belousov said that the net outflow of capital from the country in the first quarter of 2015 decreased sharply.

19.06.2015

Meanwhile, we have gathered in one place all the Forbes heroes who honored SPIEF 2015 with their presence - Viktor Vekselberg and all, all, all in our updated gallery .

19.06.2015

Megafon CEO Ivan Tavrin said that the sanctions did not in any way affect the work of the telecommunications giant controlled by Alisher Usmanov , and Western partners did not refuse to cooperate with the company, despite the unfavorable information background.

19.06.2015

Alexey Kudrin continues to take the rap for his proposal for early elections. This morning he had to sign that he has no personal presidential ambitions: according to the ex-Minister of Finance, he is not going to participate in the 2018 campaign under any circumstances.

19.06.2015

The main agreement of the second day of the forum is a memorandum of cooperation between Russia and Greece on the continuation of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline. According to the head of the Ministry of Energy, Alexander Novak, the document provides for the creation of a parity joint company with shares of 50 to 50.

19.06.2015

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has recently become Russia’s best friend in the West. People in St. Petersburg clearly like politics. Photo TASS/SPIEF.

19.06.2015

Almost everything is ready for the speech at the forum of Russian President Vladimir Putin. You can watch and listen to the speech of the head of state on the SPIEF website . I wonder whether Putin will make the session participants wait.

19.06.2015

Digest of important statements by officials and business representatives as of 14:00:

Sberbank President German Gref: The crisis in Russia is not over and will last at least until 2016.

First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Igor Shuvalov: China estimates the total volume of agreements concluded with Russia at $1 trillion.

Deputy Minister of Finance Maxim Oreshkin: The ruble exchange rate has stabilized, we can’t expect sharp jumps in the near future.

19.06.2015

Vladimir Putin's speech is delayed, and we are not surprised .

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Participants in the plenary session were promised that the presentation would begin “in a few minutes.”

19.06.2015

Russia is one of the three priority markets for Alibaba, the company is ready to invest in Russian projects, “now is a good time,” , said in an interview with TASS one of the key guests of SPIEF 2015, founder and CEO of the Chinese Internet giant Jack Ma . According to him, at the end of 2014 the company “had some downturn in business due to the fall of the ruble in Russia, but this is normal - every business has ups and downs, when there is a downturn you need to work hard, when things go well, you can reap the benefits.” .

19.06.2015

Putin's plenary session began with an optimistic opening. The discussion was moderated by CBS and Bloomberg anchor Charlie Rose.

19.06.2015

Putin begins with a friendly greeting, recalling the reputation of St. Petersburg as a city open to new cooperation.

19.06.2015

Putin lists new sad realities - the closure of capital markets for Russia, falling oil prices, declining consumer demand, declining GDP, industrial production, etc. But a deep crisis was averted, the authorities stabilized the situation, the president emphasizes. According to him, Russia’s non-resource exports are growing, inflation remains under control, etc.

19.06.2015

Russia can still rely on its gold and foreign exchange reserves, the National Welfare Fund and the Reserve Fund, the president continues to defend. Unemployment in the country is not growing, he reminds. “So-called sanctions” pushed Russia towards import substitution.

19.06.2015

The camera captured how Igor Sechin did not listen to the president. The world is changing.

19.06.2015

Putin is talking about “systemic reforms” - promising a reduction in the administrative burden on small and medium-sized businesses, tax breaks and holidays.

19.06.2015

The President continues to talk about supporting entrepreneurs. Not only new measures are needed, but also an analysis of decisions already taken, he says. “The national ranking of the investment climate in the regions has a major role to play.”

19.06.2015

Putin listed a dozen regions that are locomotives for investment development, from the Kaluga region to Chuvashia.

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Putin promises to improve the skills of management personnel and exchange experience with the best world practices.

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State capitalists listen to the president’s speeches.

June 19, 2015

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Putin talks for a long time about developing cooperation with “new centers of growth,” including China, but emphasizes that Moscow is not going to tear away from the West either - “Russia is open to the world.”

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“We are absolutely confident of success,” Putin ends very optimistically.

19.06.2015

The first word after Putin predictably goes to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

19.06.2015

“A country that wants to kill itself... achieve...” - Tsipras’ translator knows something about Russia.

19.06.2015

The session does not shine with meaningful speeches, but Tsipras speaks very figuratively: “We are in the middle of a storm, but Greece is a sea people, we feel confident.”

19.06.2015

Tsipras’s criticism of the European Union is honey to the ears of the Russian elite. One feels that this topic is the strong point of the Greek Prime Minister.

19.06.2015

Now the Vice Chairman of the State Council of the People's Republic of China is speaking. And again general words about cooperation, like-minded people, etc.

19.06.2015

While everyone is trying to withstand the exemplary official speech of the representative of the People's Republic of China, the Minister of Communications and Mass Communications Nikolai Nikiforov shares a photo on Instagram with another important guest from the Middle Kingdom.

June 19, 2015

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Vladimir Putin listens carefully, no matter what.

19.06.2015

We now have to listen to the speech of the representative of Myanmar. They declared him without a position.

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And now questions for Putin from discussion moderator Charlie Rose.

19.06.2015

The first topic is Ukraine. Putin: “Why did we come to this crisis in Ukraine? When the bipolar world system ended, our partners in the West, primarily the United States, found themselves in euphoria and began to explore new geopolitical spaces.”

19.06.2015

The United States “reached” Ukraine after Iraq and Libya, the president explains. In his opinion, the West supported the unconstitutional coup. Calls on all parties to implement the Minsk agreements. He says that Russia influences the militias as best it can and asks the West to influence the Kyiv authorities.

19.06.2015

“We don’t want anything from the Ukrainian government. The people of Ukraine must want this. The key point is a political settlement: constitutional reform with the provision of decentralization to the eastern regions. It is necessary to extend the previously adopted law on the special status of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics, to begin to implement it... We need to move from manipulation to constructive interaction. Third, an amnesty needs to be declared. Finally, we need to begin the economic rehabilitation of these territories.”

19.06.2015

When asked about the use of the Russian army on the territory of Ukraine, Putin answered evasively: he called on the other side of the conflict not to use weapons.

19.06.2015

Putin once again stated that he considers Russians and Ukrainians to be one people, supported Ukraine’s right to elections, but said nothing about the geographical boundaries of the current Ukrainian territory.

19.06.2015

Putin’s classic argument: the United States should not impose its policies on Russia, dictate terms, or interfere in domestic political activities, including through financing the non-profit sector.

19.06.2015

From the negative, Putin moved on to what unites us with the West - mainly global security issues.

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But everything is fine with China, Putin sums up.

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We will not be friends against the West with China, we do not have bloc thinking, like NATO, we think globally, Putin argues.

19.06.2015

Putin explains why he wants Russia to be respected and national interests taken into account.

19.06.2015

Syria, Iraq - Putin managed to answer the main foreign policy questions in the same vein.

19.06.2015

We have a new interview on our website - with the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Igor Shuvalov. He says that as a voter he has always voted for President Putin and will continue to vote.

19.06.2015

Putin joked about Tsipras: “If you owe someone a lot, then these are no longer your problems, but the problems of the creditor.”

St. Petersburg Economic Forum 2015, day 2: online broadcast