“Right now Russia doesn’t have a lot to say about Davos Annual Meeting in Switzerland,” Andrey Kortunov, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) told Eurasia Diary.
Andrey Kortunov
Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council
He said that Davos forum is a platform for countries to promote their plans and hold side meetings with other statesmen, businessmen, media representatives or experts.
Last week Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov stated for the local media that "the interest of foreign investors in Russia in Davos is huge and it exceeded the expectations of the Russian delegation".
In comparison with the last year’s forum, now it is time for Donald Trump to express his views on the future of the global economic system, despite the fact that hundreds of people have taken to the streets in Switzerland to protest US President's planned visit to the World Economic Forum.
It is also expected to establish business dialogue before the dialogue starts between the presidents of Russia and US.
According to Andrey Kortunov it is more likely that Putin will make a major keynote speech explaining the priorities of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum which will be held on May 24-26.
Touching upon sanctions against Russia Andrey Kortunov said that Russia is not going to conduct negotiations about sanctions during the forum.
“I’m not sure that this issue will be directly discussed in Davos.”
He mentioned that these sanctions were imposed by Western countries and they should decide whether they want to continue their sanction policy or they want to change.
Farid Hasanov
