by Eugene Nikitenko

The second weekend of June saw a phenomenal gathering of the world’s business, political and technological elite in St. Petersburg, often referred to as Russia’s northern capital. Eight thousand people representing all the vital spheres of the globe’s present-day life arrived at the XXII International Economic Forum, which since last year began to be rated as bigger than the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Indeed it was a huge gathering of big business, and a star-bucks weekend crowned by a performance of Pink Floyd’s legend Roger Waters. A 30 million-dollar get-together, but it was worth it. The two-day forum consisted of two parts – the first day, announced as International Day, featured the opening speech of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, which commentators called his economic program for the next four year. It was followed by presentations and discussions of the sores of the global economy. Given the importance of the event, most of the members of the Russian government were present.

Day two was the Russian Day, when the presenters focused on the problems and prospects of Russia’s economy. A vast array of speakers, economists, members of parliament, and public figures was made complete with the voice of sincerity from Russia’s top rock singer Yuri Shevchuk, who spoke on bureaucracy and corruption, the song we often hear from our leaders.

Among the guests were the chief representative of the European Commission in Russia Marc Franco, as well as the executives of HSBC and Goldman Sachs. One of the hot potato issues was the current dispute between BP and its Russian joint venture partner TNK. BP chief Tony Hayward was in St. Petersburg, and BP’s conference room at the forum was occupied throughout the weekend. The issue is still to be settled. Tony Hayward, CEO of BP, criticized the government for its failure to uphold the basic principles of law and implied that it was a drag on investment.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, managing director of the World Bank, also spoke of Russia’s important role in overcoming the global food crisis. Russia could help meet global needs for food supplies, acting as a donor-country of growing importance, Okonjo-Iweala said. She thinks that Russia should increase food production and boost its agricultural sector. Touching on the financial aspects of the global crisis, Okonjo-Iweala noted that Russia had all the necessary resources to minimize the effects of the crisis.

She also underlined that both in terms of finance and food, the global crisis should be solved globally, involving all the leading economies of the world. The nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) should do their best to provide subsidies to farmers all over the world. This is the only way to solve the food problem.

Jim O’Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, said his bank predicts that Russia will be one of the leading eight economies by 2020, up from 10th place now, as the rapid jumps in the oil price slow down over the next decade. This forecast is at odds with those from the government, which expects Russia to overtake Britain this year as the world’s sixth-largest economy and to move into the top five within the next 12 years.

In response to O’Neill’s comments, Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina, who was moderating the session and is one of the government’s keenest proponents of accelerated economic growth, accused him of “forecasting inertia.”