The rich and powerful flocking to Davos this year won’t be forced for once to bear the icy winter wind, but the frostiness toward Russia, whose oligarchs have thrown some of the most famously glitzy parties at the World Economic Forum, will be palpable.
The first in-person meeting in the Swiss Alps of the WEF in two years starts on Sunday after COVID-related interruptions. Even this gathering was delayed from the usual late January schedule, meaning the snow is confined for once to the peaks.
The forum is different in other ways, too. Hanging over the panels, speeches and evening soirees is the reality of a war raging hundreds of miles to the east. President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine has put an abrupt end to decades of Russian presence and influence in Davos.
