By Ralph T. Niemeyer
There will be the traditional Economic Forum from June 15th to 18th in Saint-Petersburg. Originally a Putin’s economic toy, surviving oil price hikes and first sanctions, the Forum finally became a marker of a new economic order. Now we see it is developing , and it’s possible that Europe will not able to take that place it used to. Despite the pandemic, military actions in Ukraine, the scrapping of logistics chains and the tremendous efforts of the United States of America to isolate Russia, more than 70 countries have declared for the Forum. The economic war against Russia initiated by the United States of America led not to its weakening but to the global rebuilding of its economics and its reorientation of its main vector to the East.
The West deprived itself of this giant market to which China, India and even Mongolia entered. Until recently nobody took seriously conversations about economic potential of Mongolia. Vietnam and African countries don’t stand by, tired of waiting in the wings to make a mark. It is one more indicator of that our world is changing before our eyes.
The Forum is to be held under the theme “The new world – the new potential”. It is hard to invent the more precise key-note to find itself under changing of entrenched logistic and industrial chains and inflation growth. According to the view of the authorities of the Russian Federation, it is of key importance of global interest to stimulate trade and investment, to encourage jointly developed technologies, to strengthen financial and stock markets regardless of existing political differences. Possibly this statement can be called a recipe for way out of world economic peak now. One cannot criticize the Forum coordinators in the absence of realism.
This time they have decided to retire from excessive official aspect which must attract that potential investors who avoid unauthorized communication with Russia who got “a blackball”. Thus, while registering electronically on the official resources of the Forum, there is an opportunity to use badges without photos, there is no need to go public of companies names. Also there is a restricted number of persons who have access to personal information of top-managers and large groups’ and companies’ leaders.
The West can not boast of such enviable flexibility and decided to kill itself by lockdown under the challenges of today. There was no lockdown in Russia nearly. It was cancelled within a few weeks by stealth. Until the beginning of this year we could see the protests throughout Europe which you could not see in Russian regions even at the peak of the pandemic.
While Europe was killing its economics by primitive anti-covid measures, Russia was vaccinating its inhabitants and was preparing to the throw into the future. And it looks like it was ready for it by March, 2022. The economics have withstood, the society is stable, The St. Petersburg Economic Forum extends a hand to the investors of new economic reality. What finally will Europe get who leads very forcefully beyond the selfish American politics?
Triumphant Russia, China which is becoming richer, African and Indo-Chinese countries which get more investments. Make up a name for this reality which is rapidly entering into our life. “The Wonderful new world?” The other name will not change the facts. It is time for Europe to remove the shackles of political chimeras and start to resolve the urgent issues.
The energy crisis which unexpectedly came true is beneficial for anyone but not for Europe. And if it wants to survive in the new reality and not to stay in the back of it, there is only one way: to become a locomotive for itself. And to turn it rails from the precipice which is just around the bend to the Russian plain where the will be always demand for European cars, machines and chemicals.
