Sanctioned Russians Can Attend Davos After Pressure From Moscow
17 December 2018 - 2:40AM
Dow Jones News
By Brian Blackstone in Zurich and Ann Simmons in Moscow
The World Economic Forum said Sunday that sanctioned Russian
businessmen may attend January's Davos event, after Moscow
threatened to boycott the annual gathering of the business and
political elite.
The decision fends off a dispute that risked overshadowing the
event that attracts a who's who from governments, finance
ministries and businesses around the world. Last year's conference
included President Trump and a large U.S. delegation. The summit is
supposed to be a largely nonpolitical gathering at which topics
related to the global economy are discussed.
Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, construction
billionaire Viktor Vekselberg and banker Andrey Kostin had been
asked not to attend the prestigious economic gathering to avoid
problems with American delegates, according to Russian officials.
In response, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow
would boycott the high-profile event unless the organizers reneged
on their decision to block the tycoons from attending.
On Sunday, Alois Zwinggi, head of compliance at WEF, said the
organization was pleased that Russia would "send a high-level
government delegation to Davos."
"Should the delegation include individuals under sanction, all
necessary measures have been undertaken to ensure that their
presence would be fully compliant with current legal conditions,"
he said.
There was no immediate response to The Wall Street Journal's
requests for clarification over what was meant by the sanctioned
men being "fully compliant."
This came after Russian state news agency RIA Novisti cited a
government source on Saturday as saying that an official delegation
would now take part in the forum, and that "the level of the
delegation and its composition will be decided later."
There was no immediate response from the Kremlin or Russian
legislators regarding the decision to allow Messrs. Deripaska,
Vekselberg and Kostin to attend. It was unclear whether the
blacklisted businessmen would attend now they have the all
clear.
All three have previously been regular attendees. Mr. Deripaska
had been known for hosting lavish parties at the forum intended to
showcase Russia's financial success and openness for business
despite Western restrictions that have increased animosity with the
U.S. and the European Union.
The U.S. blacklisted the men along with about three dozen others
in April in response to Russian meddling in American elections,
cyberattacks on critical U.S. infrastructure, the Kremlin's
military intervention in Ukraine and its supplying of bombs to the
regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Mr. Kostin told Russian state media in November that if the
issue over his attendance wasn't settled, the state-owned bank of
which he is chief executive, VTB, wouldn't send a delegation.
The absence of an official Russian delegation from Davos would
have been largely symbolic for Moscow, which is intent on
showcasing a united front with its oligarchs and its indifference
to Western sanctions, threats by the U.S. to pull out of the Cold
War-era missiles treaty and snubs to its business elite.
Mr. Putin is courting friends outside Europe, in Asia and the
oil-rich Arab world, and has demonstrated his readiness to forge
ahead with joint ventures and development projects there.
In November, Mr. Putin told the official Russian news agency
TASS that the Davos forum would lose out by barring the attendance
of Russian businessmen and that by doing so the organizers were
essentially "shooting themselves in the foot."
Such venues were intended to bring people together "outside of
any political restrictions," Mr. Putin said.
The Russian president later told TASS that businessmen and
companies could decide themselves whether to participate in the
event.
Mr. Putin also insisted that if Russia were to skip the Davos
gathering, it wouldn't affect Russia's authority in the global
economy, TASS reported. In an effort to push the Kremlin's
narrative that U.S. sanctions are have little impact, Mr. Putin has
continued to insist that his country's economy is holding strong
and missing out on Davos definitely would "not affect Russia's
prestige in the global economy."
The Russian president told the news agency that the authority of
any country in the global economy depends primarily on the economic
power of the state, the structure of its economy and macroeconomic
indicators.
"In this regard, I can say that, in general, we are achieving
goals that we set for ourselves and feel confident," Mr. Putin was
quoted as saying.
The Russian president isn't expected to attend January's forum.
Although he has described the gathering as a good platform, he told
TASS in November "I virtually never go there."
He last attended in 2011. Prime Minister Medvedev stopped
attending the gathering after 2013.
Write to Brian Blackstone at brian.blackstone@wsj.com and Ann
Simmons at ann.simmons@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 16, 2018 10:25 ET (15:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.