Putin’s speech at the St Petersburg economic forum started a little late due to a cyber attack. What followed was a verbal attack by the Russian president on the West. Now you orient yourself differently.
Russian President Vladimir Putin believes his country’s economy is robust despite Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine. Attempts to weaken them have failed, Putin said on Friday at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg. The economic “blitzkrieg” against Russia has no chance of success.
The banking system has been stabilized. There is enough liquidity to fuel the economy. Gloomy predictions about a drastic devaluation of the national currency, the ruble, did not materialize. Inflation also peaked in the meantime.
“We don’t mine the ports”
According to Putin, Russia is not getting in the way of grain deliveries from Ukraine. “We don’t mine the ports,” said the Russian president. If Kyiv decides to clear the mines, Moscow will guarantee the safety of exports, Putin said.
However, according to the Russian president, deliveries of Ukrainian grain are insignificant for the world market. That’s about five to six million tons of wheat and about the same amount of corn. This is irrelevant to the world market, Putin said. Western sanctions against Russia would have a much bigger impact on rising food prices. Fertilizer exports, in particular, put future crops at risk and therefore continue to drive up prices, he warned.
Furthermore, Putin accused the US and Europe of increasing food imports and thus fueling competition for coveted foods on world markets. This started long before the war in Ukraine, which Putin called “a special military operation in Donbass”. Food inflation is therefore unrelated to the Russian attack, the 69-year-old said.
hack delayed speech
At the same time, Putin used the stage to verbally attack the West. The US acted as if it had been sent to earth by God with sacred interests. “Our Western colleagues still think in terms of the last century, they treat other countries as colonies,” Putin said, stressing that nothing in international politics will ever be the same.
Putin’s speech at the forum known as “Russian Davos” began late after a hacking attack. There was a so-called “denial of service” attack on the accreditation system, as announced by the Kremlin. In this type of hacking attack, a server is bombarded with so many requests that the system can no longer handle the tasks.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a phone call with reporters that the cyberattack began on Thursday and crippled the forum’s registration and entry system. This led to a number of access issues.
The pro-Russian separatist leader in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, Denis Pushilin, has called for the Russian army to conquer all of Ukraine. Pushilin told Russian news agency Tass at the St Petersburg economic forum on Friday that all of Ukraine, including the “Russian city of Kyiv and western Ukraine”, should be “liberated”. Therefore, this “heavy responsibility would not be passed on to the next generation,” Puschilin added.
Russia looks to China, India and Africa
Putin has repeatedly made it clear that Russia will not be impressed by EU and US sanctions. Under the slogan “New World – New Opportunities” representatives from more than 100 countries were expected in St. Petersburg. In the face of enormous tensions with the West, Russia is increasingly orienting itself economically towards Asia, above all towards China and India, but also towards Africa and South America.
Russia, for example, is increasingly diverting its oil and gas supplies from the EU to other regions of the world. Currently, the country is generating particularly high revenues due to high oil and gas prices on the world market. The national currency also rebounded significantly nearly four months ago after losing value against the dollar and euro at the start of the war. The ruble is now stronger than it has been for years.
“Vkusno i Tochka” instead of McDonald’s
Because of the sanctions, several Western companies, including German companies, have left Russia. Putin explained that other companies filled in the gaps. For example, after the departure of the North American chain McDonald’s, new hamburgers were opened in the branches with the name Wkusno i Totschka – German: delicious and period. In Moscow, queues form in bars for days.
Despite extensive sanctions imposed by the West, representatives of the Russian leadership no longer viewed the development of the economy and inflation in their own country in such a gloomy light. There are reasons for “certain optimism”, Russian Economy Minister Maxim Reschetnikov told the economic forum. “The first quarter results and preliminary estimates for April and May show that things are improving” than previously expected in the forecasts. Inflation will be “significantly” lower through the end of the year than the last forecast of 17.5 percent, Reshetnikov said. He also said that limiting the decline in gross domestic product (GDP) to five to six percent is “absolutely achievable.” In May, the ministry had put the expected drop in GDP at 7.8%.
President Putin’s speech was delayed due to a cyber attack on the Economic Forum. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said experts were working to resolve the problem, Reuters reported Friday afternoon.
115 participating countries
The organizers of the economic forum speak of participants from 115 countries this year. In the record year 2020, there were 19,000 participants from 145 countries. A number of participants were not mentioned this time. Entrepreneurs have the opportunity this year to participate anonymously in the forum to avoid being penalized as part of the Western sanctions policy. According to the media, participants from France, Italy, Canada and the USA are also registered.
This year’s guests of honor include President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of the authoritarian former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan, the Taliban of Afghanistan and the separatist leaders of the “People’s Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk” recognized by Russia and persecuted as terrorists by Ukraine. Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has been criticized for human rights violations, is to be connected via video. Putin will also meet with representatives of Russian media, including war reporters.
(APA/dpa)