Western companies have almost universally shunned a self-styled “Russian Davos” event annually headlined by Vladimir Putin, in a stark symbol of Russia’s international isolation more than 15 months into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
One former attendee of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) described an invitation to the forum as “totally toxic” and compared it to being asked to join the annual reunion of Spectre, the criminal organisation run by James Bond’s archenemy Ernst Blofeld.
