Egyptian President El Sisi to be main guest at Russian economic forum

Delegations from more than 40 countries are expected at the meeting

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will attend the forum online.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will be the main guest at this year's St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Mr El Sisi will join the annual conference via video link, state-run news agency Sputnik reported, quoting Yury Ushakov, a senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A delegation of ministers and business people from Egypt will attend the three-day forum, which begins on Wednesday.

Egypt, the world’s top wheat buyer, depends on imports from Russia and Ukraine for about 80 per cent of its needs.

Wheat importers in Egypt have been facing record-high prices, payment complications due to sanctions against Russia and disruptions to Black Sea wheat shipments, which have driven up the price of food products.

The Egyptian government said it is working on plans to diversify its wheat sources.

Russian tourists have traditionally accounted for a significant part of Egypt’s tourism sector, which was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

The country resumed flights to Egypt last year after a long pause that began in 2015 after a Russian plane was downed in a terrorist attack in Sinai.

In March, Egypt and 140 other countries voted in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution that called for a halt to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and an immediate withdrawal of its forces.

The forum, the 25th so far, will be attended by high-ranking delegations and the top executives of major foreign companies and banks in more than 40 countries, Sputnik reported.

Putin address

Mr Putin is expected to address the plenary session on Friday.

“He will give his assessment of the current situation in the global economy and politics during his speech,” said Mr Ushakov, a former Russian diplomat.

“We will talk about the problems that the world economy is facing today, about unfair interstate competition, trade and financial wars, sanctions, restrictions and so on.”

There will be no official representatives from “unfriendly states” at the forum, Mr Ushakov said.

In March, the Russian government approved a list of “unfriendly countries”, including the US, Canada, the UK, the EU Japan and South Korea, in response to sweeping sanctions imposed on it due to the war in Ukraine.

The list was followed by a decree signed by Mr Putin to introduce visa restrictions for citizens of countries on the list, which singled out some EU countries and Norway, Switzerland and Iceland.

In February, Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in what it called a special operation to degrade its southern neighbour's military capabilities and root out people it called dangerous nationalists.

The US and the EU have imposed wide-ranging sanctions in response.

Over the past four months, Russia has been taking steps to protect its currency and boost an economy weakened by war, inflation and the restriction of imports.

Organisers of the forum told foreign participants to be sure to bring cash — not necessarily for making investments, but for spending money.

Due to the sanctions, most foreign bank cards don’t work in the country. The advice for those heading to the St Petersburg event, which will run from Wednesday to Saturday, is a quiet acknowledgment of the economic difficulties Russia faces as it tries to promote itself to international businesses.

The forum, often characterised as Russia’s analogue of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, aims to portray the country as orderly and full of attractive opportunities for clever and adventurous investors. This year’s programme carries the theme to an extent that is overly optimistic for Russia’s straitened circumstances.

Several sessions focus on developing Russia’s tourist potential, despite the roadblocks for foreigners who may wish to holiday there amid flights banned by western nations.

As of early June, about 2,700 business representatives from 90 countries were expected to attend the event in St Petersburg — far below the 13,500 participants from 140 countries reported last year.

Organisers did not provide a list of foreign businesses attending, but the programme for the 100-plus panel discussions showed few speakers from outside Russia.

Some were from China. The trade minister of the UAE was also scheduled. Denis Pushilin, leader of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, a Russian-backed breakaway region on eastern Ukraine, announced he plans to attend.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz and a delegation from the Taliban were also in attendance on Wednesday.

Officials from India, Iran and Venezuela are expected at the event in the coming days.

A major energy exporter, Russia has demanded that European nations pay for natural gas in roubles and asked local companies to change large parts of their foreign currency revenue to the local currency.

Moscow has also limited the amount of dollars Russian citizens can withdraw from their bank accounts and banned foreign currency sales.

Russia is working on a long-term plan to protect itself from sanctions, Sergei Chemezov, the head of Russia's largest state-run corporation, told The National in April.

Mr Chemezov admitted that western sanctions were not new to Russia but said the scale of the recent measures imposed by the EU, the UK, the US and their allies, including Japan, was tantamount to a ‘’declaration of war”.

Ever since 2014, Russia has been under western sanctions triggered by its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.