Moscow
Once a gathering place for Western leaders and buyers, Russia’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) contains a visitor checklist that features an eclectic mixture of American attendees starting from conservative podcaster Candace Owens, US Commission of Fine Arts Chairman Rodney Mims Cook, Jr., and American actor Steven Seagal.
The Ukrainians are usually not in attendance, however they made their presence felt because the Kremlin’s flagship enterprise and economic forum bought underway underneath the cloud of drone strikes on Russia’s second-largest metropolis – President Vladimir Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg – simply hours earlier than the occasion began on Wednesday.
Dubbed Putin’s reply to Davos, the forum has seen the variety of Western contributors progressively dwindle through the years following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the nation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Saudi Arabia is the visitor of honor at this 12 months’s forum with the Saudi power minister due to participate within the plenary session with Putin on Friday. In a transparent signal of Russia’s transfer towards enterprise ties with the East, Chinese Vice President Han Zheng can be in attendance with a big delegation.
Cook, appointed to the federal government fee by President Donald Trump, is the primary US official to attend the forum since 2017. His presence has been a lot touted by the Kremlin, which described him because the chief of the primary official US delegation at SPIEF for a few years.
Cook informed Russian state media on Wednesday he had permission from Trump and the State Department to go to Russia. However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio informed a Senate committee listening to on Wednesday that he was “not aware” of an official delegation attending, regardless of Moscow’s solutions in any other case.
Nevertheless, Cook was a visitor panelist on a “Russia–US: A Cultural Dialogue” on Thursday alongside American actor Steven Seagal and Russia’s Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova. In his opening remarks, Cook began by exhibiting viewers members and fellow panelists his “dacha” – a Russian type cabin or nation cottage – in Atlanta.
“I’ve been treated again in St. Petersburg with great warmth. Many in this room are personal friends over decades, I’m here to listen and to learn,” Cook stated.
“I want to show you how I live; this is my dacha where I live in Atlanta. It is in the Russian wooden vernacular which has touched my heart over the decades and I find it extraordinary,” he added, exhibiting photographs of his residence on a presentation slide.
Cook’s fee has been tasked with approving the rebuild of the White House ballroom wing and Trump’s “triumphal arch” – a 250-foot monument within the type of Paris’ Arc de Triomphe that the president plans to construct in Washington, DC. He additionally confirmed photos of a few of the design plans for these tasks.
Cook, who labored on the restoration of Russia’s Arkhangelskoye Palace and New Jerusalem Monastery, spoke of his affection for Russian architect Anton Glikin, whom he referred to as his “surrogate son.” Gilkin, who was additionally on the panel, is somebody Cook has mentored and collaborated with on varied tasks.
“We have a similar spirit; he is my Russian brother though I regard him as my son,” Cook stated.
Gilkin designed the World Athletes Monument, erected in 1996 in Atlanta, after profitable a contest by way of the Prince of Wales’s Institute of Architecture, of which Cook was a founding trustee.
The architect informed the panelists he’s overseeing the design of a settlement within the metropolis of Nizhny Novgorod for 450 Western immigrants to Russia who transfer underneath the “shared values visa.” The visa was launched by a Putin presidential decree in August 2024 for migrants who embrace Russia’s conventional anti-woke values.
Earlier, Gilkin informed Russian state media that he performed a number of Russian people songs on the piano for Cook and his daughters throughout his go to to St. Petersburg.
“Rodney has always been a Russophile; he loves the Orthodox Church and fundamental classical culture. At the same time, he’s an Anglophile, but I would say that Russian culture still ranks first in his hierarchy,” Gilkin informed Russian state media TASS.
Russia’s struggle in Ukraine didn’t come up throughout the panel dialogue, however Robert Agee, President and CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, stated the extent of “misunderstanding” and “mistrust” between the 2 international locations is at an all-time excessive.
Agee spoke of a “huge opportunity” on the enterprise entrance, and stated he’s been discussing tasks price trillions of {dollars} with Russian Direct Investment Fund head Kirill Dmitriev for the previous 4 years. However, he stated these tasks can’t materialize till the international locations “improve their relationship” – with out as soon as mentioning the Russian invasion of its neighbor as an obstacle to these enterprise ties.
Agee introduced Russia and American ice hockey gamers will face off in Moscow on July 1 to coincide with the 250th anniversary of US independence. Putin, a longtime ice hockey fan, proposed matches between Russian and American gamers in a name with Trump in March 2025.
Also on the panel was Seagal, an everyday fixture in Russia who in 2016 was handed a Russian passport by Putin himself. The Hollywood actor stated establishing ties between Russia and America is his “dream.”
An unlikely and stunning visitor this 12 months was conservative American podcaster Owens, who took half in one other panel touting household values. A primary-time customer to the nation, she spent a few days in Moscow along with her husband and youngsters, posting photographs of her vacationer actions, earlier than heading to St. Petersburg.
Owens has grow to be a very controversial determine after touting conspiracy theories pertaining to the loss of life of conservative American activist Charlie Kirk and the gender of French first woman Brigitte Macron, who has filed a defamation lawsuit in opposition to the podcaster.
On the sidelines of the convention, Owens questioned US help for Ukraine, telling reporters “Americans are getting tired of funding and not knowing where the money is going.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov informed state media there aren’t any plans for a gathering between Putin and the Americans in attendance.
The self-proclaimed misogynist influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan additionally posted that they’re in Russia this week. Andrew Tate posted a video of the 2 at a Moscow airport receiving a welcome ceremony involving Russian dancing and a standard providing of bread and salt. Whether the pair are attending the economic forum is just not but clear.
NCS’s Katharina Krebs contributed reporting.