Russian Economy and St. Petersburg Forum

[Dissident]

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St. Petersburg International Economic Forum opened today. This event has been held annually in St. Petersburg since 1997, and the Russian President has been taking part in it since 2005.

This forum is of particular importance to V. Putin, because St. Petersburg is his home city, where he spent a great part of his life.

Yesterday, Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov reported that this year, politicians from 50 countries are expected to attend the forum, including Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, South African Vice President Paul Mashatile, and the First-ranked Vice Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Ding Xuexiang.

A large number of events are planned for the Forum, including both a business program and more informal events, in particular, sports competitions. The forum will also feature more than a dozen thematic areas.

Russian Presidential Press Secretary D. Peskov reported that Vladimir Putin, as always, will hold a meeting with heads of global news agencies at the forum.
Last year, representatives of Reuters, Kyodo, AP, DPA, EFE, and AFP took part in this meeting.​

It is expected that the Russian President, among other things, will tell in detail about the state of the Russian economy in the current period. And in the coming days, I will inform you in this thread about the essential points of V. Putin’s speeches at this Economic Forum in St. Petersburg.

 

[Litwin]

​

St. Petersburg International Economic Forum opened today. This event has been held annually in St. Petersburg since 1997, and the Russian President has been taking part in it since 2005.

This forum is of particular importance to V. Putin, because St. Petersburg is his home city, where he spent a great part of his life.

Yesterday, Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov reported that this year, politicians from 50 countries are expected to attend the forum, including Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, South African Vice President Paul Mashatile, and the First-ranked Vice Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Ding Xuexiang.

A large number of events are planned for the Forum, including both a business program and more informal events, in particular, sports competitions. The forum will also feature more than a dozen thematic areas.

Russian Presidential Press Secretary D. Peskov reported that Vladimir Putin, as always, will hold a meeting with heads of global news agencies at the forum.
Last year, representatives of Reuters, Kyodo, AP, DPA, EFE, and AFP took part in this meeting.​

It is expected that the Russian President, among other things, will tell in detail about the state of the Russian economy in the current period. And in the coming days, I will inform you in this thread about the essential points of V. Putin’s speeches at this Economic Forum in St. Petersburg.

you suck ivan, you ulus is finished, inflation and a 20% growth in expenditures is a disaster!The economy is starting to cascade into decline. Companies are starting to optimize. They are cutting staff, canceling all investments. ulus is flying into the abyss.

 

[Dissident]

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Today, the official website of the President of the Russian Federation published the full text of the meeting of V. Putin with representatives of leading world news agencies at the Forum in St. Petersburg. Below I will provide a brief overview of a number of issues raised at this meeting.

Economic Part​

• According to V. Putin, there is reason to believe that the forecasts, that say that world trade will slow down, have certain grounds.​
• Russia is increasingly interested in cooperation with China. Currently, Russia's trade turnover with this country is 240 billion dollars. As a result, interest in the Chinese language in Russia is also growing. V. Putin's granddaughter has a teacher from Beijing, and they speak Chinese fluently with each other.​
• Cooperation with Indonesia is developing very well, among other things, Indonesia is starting to work within the BRICS framework. The Russian leadership highly appreciates the fact that the President of Indonesia after the elections, but even before the inauguration has come to Russia for a visit.​
• And, conversely, Russian imports to the United States have decreased tenfold and imports from the United States to Russia have decreased more than fourfold.​

Political part​

• Regarding the "threat" to the West from Russia, V. Putin said that NATO countries are currently spending 1,400 billion dollars on weapons. This is more than all other countries in the world together - including Russia and the People's Republic of China - spend on these purposes. And the population of NATO countries is 340 million. Russia has a population of approximately 150 million. And the Russian Federation spends incomparably less money on weapons.​
• The entry of the Crimea, the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, as well as the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions into the Russian Federation following the referendums is the realization of the right of nations to self-determination and, therefore, complies with the UN Charter.​
• Russia will not allow armed forces to exist in Ukraine that pose a potential threat to the Russian Federation and its people.​

 

[Dissident]

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Earlier in this thread I spoke about the foreign economic indicators of the Russian economy, which were discussed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
And yesterday, the full text of the Plenary Session of the Forum, in which V. Putin too took part, was posted on the official website of the President of the Russian Federation. At that day, among other things, the internal economic situation in Russia was discussed.

Below I present a number of fragments that, in my opinion, deserve special attention.

The discussion was moderated by Nadim Koteich, CEO of Sky News Arabia and he asked the President of the Russian Federation:​

N. Koteich: So, a direct question: there is a lot of evidence and research, that may be trusted, that this war is killing the Russian economy, the key rate is very high and the debt is growing. Is this war killing your economy?
V. Putin : Firstly, the debt is not growing, it is one of the lowest in the world.
Secondly... The main indicator is GDP growth, the rate of GDP growth. The year before last, Russia's GDP growth was 4.1 percent, last year - 4.3 percent. Global growth, if my memory serves me right, was 3.3 percent. That is, we grew above the global average. The United States grew at a rate of 2.8 percent. And the Eurozone - 0.9 percent... And if you remove everything related to hydrocarbons from this, our growth will be even more significant. The year before last - 7.2 percent, and last year - almost five percent, 4.9.
The structure of the Russian economy is changing – that’s the most important thing. In the structure of GDP growth, 43 percent plus is not the oil and gas industries or even the defense industries. A significant part of our growth is concentrated in the main industrial sector, not even directly related to the defense industry.
Industry is growing at an even faster rate than the country's GDP. Last year, I think, growth was somewhere around seven percent - 7.2. Now, in the first quarter of this year, it is also already, I think, 1.6-1.9.
Yes, of course, the price for such a sharp economic growth – for us this is quite a fast pace – was inflation.​

Attention was also paid to Russia’s position in the global economy.​

Russia already ranks fourth in the world in terms of gross domestic product, and first in Europe. This is not per capita, but gross domestic product, that is, the size of the economy, but it is still a very significant indicator.
...
Russia confidently ranks first in the world in terms of wheat sales on the world market.​

The issue of foreign companies, that left Russia, was also raised - Will the previous owners be given the opportunity to buy back the enterprises that previously belonged to them, the so-called buyback ?​

First. We must understand who left us and how, on what grounds. If someone left for political reasons, under pressure from the political elites of their countries, then these are unreliable partners. They put labor collectives in a difficult position, which could have ended up on the street. Apparently, this is what they were aiming for. But nothing came of it, because Russian business took over management, entered the vacated niches. And, frankly speaking, in this sense, decisions of this kind contributed to a change in the quality of the Russian economy, because our entrepreneurs entered the management of these companies or became their owners.
But if there are legally binding documents that were written between partners that guaranteed this buyback, well, then Russian companies will also have to fulfill these conditions. We are for relations to be reliable and stable.​

 

[Zebra]

Saint or Sankt Petersburg?

 

[Dissident]

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Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok (RF)

Today, the anniversary tenth Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) began in the Russian Far Eastern city of Vladivostok, see the official website of the forum.

This event originates from the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of May 19, 2015, which stated as the main goals of the Forum “promoting the accelerated development of the economy of the Far East and expanding international cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region”; see the official website of the President of the Russian Federation.

Over the past years, interest in the EEF has grown significantly.
In the first year, in September 2015, the EEF was attended by more than 2.5 thousand people including representatives of official delegations and large foreign companies from 32 countries. The theme chosen for the plenary session of the first Forum was “The Far East on the Global Map of Investment Opportunities.”

And last year, 2024, more than 7,100 people took part in the Forum, including over 1,500 media representatives from 75 countries including Russia. The motto of last year's Forum was "Far East - 2030. Let's join efforts, creating opportunities."

In 2025, the official motto of the Forum is “The Far East – cooperation for peace and prosperity.”

The Forum events are divided into seven thematic blocks:​

• The Far East – a territory for life and development;​
• Recipes for growth: investments, innovations, integration;​
• Openness and mutually beneficial partnership – the basis of stability;​
• Technologies: from theory to economic effects;​
• Cities – for people’s lives;​
• Arteries of growth: how logistics changes the economy;​
• In partnership between business and government: a major reassembly.​

Among the top officials of foreign countries who visited the Forum over the years of its existence were the Chairman of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping, the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, South Korean Presidents Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in, Malaysian Prime Ministers Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim, President of Mongolia Khaltmaagiin Battulga, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of Myanmar Min Aung Hline.

The President of the Russian Federation V. Putin has also been a permanent participant of the EEF all these years.​

 

[Ringo]

 

[Dissident]

At the forum in Vladivostok, V. Putin gave a speech today, in which he spoke about economic and political issues; see the official website of the President of the Russian Federation.

Below I will provide excerpts from this speech that seemed to me the most important.

When asked about the existing budget deficit of the Russian Federation, V. Putin answered as follows:​

Some of our colleagues in the Government believe that this deficit can be increased, and there is nothing wrong with that. Why? Because the level of our debt burden – both external debt and internal debt – is not just acceptable, it is low, and this guarantees the stability of the entire credit and financial system – including the budget system.​

V. Putin said that Russia has never objected to Ukraine joining the European Union, but will not allow Ukraine to join NATO (see below):​

… we have never objected to any integration principles in Ukraine’s policy in the European direction.

As for security issues, that's a different matter. ... with the help of a bloody coup in Kyiv, those forces that were for joining and now continue to hope for Ukraine's joining NATO were brought to power. This does not suit us at all.

Even though each country has the right to choose to ensure its own security, such issues are not resolved without regard for the security of Russia itself, because there is a general rule expressed and recorded in European documents: the security of one country cannot be ensured at the expense of the security of another.​

Regarding the plans announced this week to deploy Western troops in Ukraine, V. Putin spoke as follows:​

...as for possible (Western) military contingents in Ukraine. This is one of the primary reasons for drawing Ukraine into NATO. Therefore, if some troops appear there, especially now, during military operations, we proceed from the fact that these will be legitimate targets for their destruction.

And if decisions are reached that lead to peace, to long-term peace, then I simply don’t see any point in their presence on the territory of Ukraine, that’s all.​

 

[Ringo]

Russia has supplied chicken eggs to the US for the first time. The trial purchase is worth $450,000.

 

[Litwin]

Saint or Sankt Petersburg?

Thread 'Did you know that the Moscow empire’s GDP is actually smaller than that of Los Angeles County, New York City, or the state of Texas—not combined, but'

Sep 4, 2025

Did you know that the Moscow empire’s GDP is actually smaller than that of Los Angeles County, New York City, or the state of Texas—not combined, but each one separately?
I need to prepare for the

trolls : hamburger index (etc)

• Litwin

 

[Dissident]

​

The tenth Eastern Economic Forum ended today in Vladivostok.

Below are some facts about the results of this year's forum.

According to Anton Kobyakov, Executive Secretary of the EEF Organizing Committee, more than 8,400 participants and media representatives took part in the forum.

At the EEF in this year, 353 agreements were signed, the total volume of which exceeded 6.6 trillion rubles; see the website of the Russian State Information Company VGTRK.
This significantly exceeds the figures for last year, when the total amount of concluded agreements amounted to approximately 5.5 trillion rubles.

This year, the largest delegations were from China, Mongolia, India, Japan and Laos.

High-ranking foreign politicians, including Mongolian Prime Minister Gombojavyn Zandanshatar and Lao Prime Minister Sonsay Siphandon took part in the forum.

It is interesting to note that on September 3, the day the WEF opened, the International Forum “Falcon Day” was held on its site, dedicated to the protection of birds of prey and rare species that require special protection measures.
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[Litwin]

​

The tenth Eastern Economic Forum ended today in Vladivostok.

Below are some facts about the results of this year's forum.

According to Anton Kobyakov, Executive Secretary of the EEF Organizing Committee, more than 8,400 participants and media representatives took part in the forum.

At the EEF in this year, 353 agreements were signed, the total volume of which exceeded 6.6 trillion rubles; see the website of the Russian State Information Company VGTRK.
This significantly exceeds the figures for last year, when the total amount of concluded agreements amounted to approximately 5.5 trillion rubles.

This year, the largest delegations were from China, Mongolia, India, Japan and Laos.

High-ranking foreign politicians, including Mongolian Prime Minister Gombojavyn Zandanshatar and Lao Prime Minister Sonsay Siphandon took part in the forum.

It is interesting to note that on September 3, the day the WEF opened, the International Forum “Falcon Day” was held on its site, dedicated to the protection of birds of prey and rare species that require special protection measures.
​

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Thread 'Did you know that the Moscow empire’s GDP is actually smaller than that of Los Angeles County, New York City, or the state of Texas—not combined, but'

Sep 4, 2025

Did you know that the Moscow empire’s GDP is actually smaller than that of Los Angeles County, New York City, or the state of Texas—not combined, but each one separately?
I need to prepare for the

trolls : hamburger index (etc)

• Litwin