On Friday St Petersburg dwellers prepared the city for the 12th International economic forum. And on Saturday the roads were blocked with the police cordons at the approaches to “Lenexpo” in the Vasilyevsky Island where the world business elite was being received.   

The status of the forum still stands unclear despite the fact it is called to be a “Russian Davos”. While businessmen and politicians go to Switzerland to have debates, they come to Petersburg to listen mainly. This time the delegates expected, first, the presentation by Dmitry Medvedev of his economic program, and, second, the explanations by Vladimir Putin’s cabinet ministers about the Russian government’s plans. One may say the forum was to give an opportunity to the business to assess its perspectives in Russia.      

On Saturday it was talked about international issues – from energy security to ecological problems. The topic of the next day was the strategy of development of Russia up to 2020.   

The forum was opened by Dmitry Medvedev. He said the previous year was one of the hardest for the world economy and explained that the reason was about the USA. He said a conviction about possibility by even the most powerful state to take up the role of the world ruler turned out to be an illusion. The crisis was caused with discrepancy of the formal role by America in the new economic system and the country’s real opportunities. Whatever reliable the US market was, it cannot substitute the global financial and stock exchange markets. 

Medvedev warned the countries from a certain “economic egoism”. This is how the Russian leader called the wish to get privileges for one’s own citizens not sharing with other states. He said it’s economic nationalism that stands behind all that (it’s when the pragmatic interests are replaced with political reasons). Dmitry Medvedev noted that such actions affect everyone under conditions of the global world. 

The President also shared his vision of the Russia’s place in the world economic process. In particular, he told about plans of turning Moscow into a powerful world financial center, and the ruble is to become one of the leading regional reserve currencies. Dmitry Medvedev promised that a corresponding plan would be presented in the nearest future.