Putin courts global guests as war and sanctions shadow forum

St. Petersburg’s annual economic showcase opened with polished branding and a crowded guest list, but the real backdrop was war, sanctions and slowing growth. The Kremlin wants the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum to signal normalcy and investor confidence; instead, the forum has become a measure of how far Russia has drifted from the Western business world it once courted.

The 29th SPIEF was officially scheduled for June 3 to 6, 2026, under the theme “Pragmatic Dialogue: The Path to a Stable Future.” The forum, held annually since 1997 and under the auspices of the Russian president since 2006, has long been billed as Russia’s answer to Davos. This year’s guest list was meant to reinforce that image, with expected attendees including a right-wing U.S. influencer, a sitting U.S. official and a German retail billionaire. Andrew Tate was also reported as possibly in attendance.

The political contrast was stark. The forum opened just hours after a deadly drone and missile attack on Kyiv, and Ukraine was absent from the formal program even as the war hung over nearly every conversation. Russia described the strike as retaliation for an attack on a dormitory in Russian-controlled Luhansk. The omission of Ukraine from the agenda did little to erase the conflict from the atmosphere in St. Petersburg, where the forum’s polished presentation stood in sharp contrast to the costs of a grinding war.

Those costs now define the economic picture. Russia’s economy is projected at about $2.9 trillion, a fraction of NATO’s combined $45 trillion, and growth has slowed sharply. Officials have pointed to high interest rates, sanctions and a strong ruble as reasons for the deceleration. Economists say the government faces an uncomfortable tradeoff: keep pouring money into the military or give the civilian economy more room to breathe. That tension has only deepened as Ukrainian drone attacks have disrupted oil refineries, fertilizer plants and ports.

The forum’s own materials still present SPIEF as a major commercial engine. Its 2025 edition drew more than 24,200 participants and media representatives from 144 countries and territories, along with about 8,700 business representatives. Organizers said that meeting produced 1,084 agreements worth just over RUB 6.481 trillion. The 2026 business program was billed at more than 370 events and more than 1,300 speakers and moderators, with sessions on macroeconomic stability, international trade, investment, AI, cybersecurity and industrial development.

Russia also uses SPIEF as a geopolitical stage, with official materials highlighting bilateral business dialogue and meetings linked to BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union and ASEAN. That is the forum’s central contradiction: a carefully staged showcase of access and ambition, even as isolation, sanctions and war leave the underlying economy looking less dynamic by the year.