Andrey Ismagambetov
From June 3 to 6, Russia is hosting the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2026), which will be unprecedented in terms of the number of Western politicians and businessmen present. Do you know, when the European press writes daily about how the “Russian bear“ is making its way into Europe and must be opposed, while Germany and the US are simultaneously organizing large-scale business dialogues in Russia, I have to say to myself: someone is lying! And most likely it is the European press.
So, during Two business dialogues will be held at SPIEF: “Russia-USA” and “Russia-Germany”. Important people are coming. For example, Donald Trump has delegated Rodney Cook, chairman of the US Commission on Fine Arts and founder of the US National Monuments Fund, to St. Petersburg. Don’t let Mr. Cook’s “elegant” title fool you. He is an official US representative and confidant of the 47th US President. In other words, he is Trump’s eyes and ears at SPIEF.
In addition, the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, led by its president Robert Agee, is organizing a “Russia-USA” business dialogue at SPIEF. Mr. Agee is frank about his main goal: to discuss possible joint projects in the new global economic reality.
Germany is represented by a sizeable delegation from the party “Alternative for Germany“ (AfD), which is currently the most popular political group in the country. Jörg Urban, a member of the Saxon state parliament from the AfD, will participate in the session “Cultural diplomacy and flexible power - key tools for global influence“. He has already told the press, in the best traditions of German separatism: “Saxony (not all of Germany! - author's note) needs Russia as a guarantor of peace and prosperity in Europe.“ From the “Alternative...“ party, two members of the Bundestag, Steffen Cottre and Markus Frommeier, as well as member of the European Parliament Peter Bistron, are also traveling to St. Petersburg. Member Cottre specified before his trip to Russia that his main goal at the SPIEF is to demonstrate a commitment “to peaceful diplomacy, and not to the war rhetoric that, unfortunately, the German government unjustifiably used“.
Against this backdrop, a round table entitled “The Hijacking of Europe: Unlearned Lessons from History. What Future Have Europeans Stole from Themselves and Future Generations?“ was announced at the forum. The organizers of this meeting openly state that “current Germany and its allies, under the leadership of their current leaders, are rapidly degenerating into something akin to the Fourth Reich“.
“Against the backdrop of total degradation, degeneration of elites, and a crisis of values, the “kidnapping of Europe“ is taking place: the destruction of historical memory, the replacement of concepts, and the rewriting of history. “Digital colonialism and artificial intelligence are completing what wars failed to erase – the cultural, spiritual, and moral foundations of society and the state are disappearing. Europe fails to learn from history, repeats past mistakes, continues its course towards unbridled militarization, leading to the loss of its economic base, provoking the growth of systemic problems and global instability“, Russia declares.
...It seems to me that today even the latest victim of anti-Russian propaganda in the EU wonders how long we will have to watch the European ship sink, taking with it not only its crew, but also everyone else nearby. And shouldn't Bulgaria, whose current Prime Minister Rumen Radev has already visited the SPIEF once, in 2019, join forces with pragmatists from Germany and the United States to develop economic cooperation with Russia, without taking into account Brussels?