President Vladimir Putin's speech at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum will contain "a message for our business and for foreign investors, all of this will be harmoniously combined," said Dmitry Peskov, the president's press secretary, on the morning of June 17. "It will contain answers to expectations regarding structural reforms, and so on. The speech is very rich in content, so it will be the main event today," TASS quotes the official as saying.

In 2016, the SPIEF is being held under the motto "On the threshold of a new economic reality." The topic of choosing the further path of development of the Russian economy, taking into account the unfavorable external situation, became the main topic for the plenary session, TASS reminds.

Earlier, Peskov suggested that the president would most likely "emphasize Russia's interest in foreign investment, interest in continuing and expanding cooperation with foreign businesses." Peskov preferred not to disclose the content of the head of state's upcoming speech in more detail. "It will be interesting," he said only. The main topics of discussion at the plenary session will be modern trends in international trade, investment, the latest energy technologies, issues of modernization, innovation, climate change and the "green" economy.

On this day, Putin will also hold talks with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and meet with heads of international news agencies, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said the day before. Putin has several more meetings scheduled for the same day, including with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and the heads of four dozen major foreign companies. According to Ushakov, "the president will talk about the state of the Russian economy, pay attention to its development prospects, measures to improve the business climate in the country and reduce the administrative and tax burden on business." Ushakov noted that the president's work schedule on this day will not just be busy, but rather "overheated." Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov does not expect Putin's work day to end before midnight.

Peskov announced Putin's rich speech at SPIEF