Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the decision of the organizers to allow Russian businessmen to attend the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos. He said that the Kremlin welcomed the fact that the Davos economic forum and its leaders accepted Russia's "position regarding the inadmissibility of selective treatment towards our entrepreneurs."
Peskov said that Russian entrepreneurs will easily compensate for contacts with U.S. businessmen at the Davos forum by meeting with representatives of other countries.
The spokesman also commented on media reports about five terms, under which Russian businessmen were allowed to participate in the forum. Particularly, the issue is about restricted communication with US peers during the forum, including their participation in the events organized by the U.S. side.
"The forum prefers to be very cautious regarding the topic of restrictions imposed by several countries, first of all the U.S., against certain (Russian) entrepreneurs, and consequently they have made an attempt to couple their interest in continued contacts with our entrepreneurs with the restrictions in force against them," he said.
"At the end of the day, contacts with U.S. businessmen may easily be replaced by (contacts) with entrepreneurs from other countries," TASS cited Peskov as saying.
Head of the State Duma’s Committee for Financial Markets Anatoly Aksakov, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, noted resolving the conflict with the organizers of the World Economic Forum was due to Moscow's perseverance. "First, what they said before was clearly a misunderstanding. Second, I think the Russian side’s substantial contribution was quite solid. Third, international business was involved in this process," he said.
Due to this, Russia will continue to represent its interests at the largest and most popular economic forum. "The participation of our businessmen is obviously necessary in order to, first of all, establish interaction on the sidelines of the forum, explain the situation, share impressions and agree on possible contracts," Anatoly Aksakov stressed.
First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs Vladimir Dzhabarov welcomed the decision of the forum's organizers. "First, it’s good that common sense prevailed and our sanctioned businessmen were invited. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev took a very tough position, saying that there’s no point in sending a delegation in this case, and the Davos forum could lose a lot without the Russian business. Therefore, I think, Europe will begin to see clearly, especially when it comes to sanctions against MPs," he said.
The Davos forum is not an internal Swiss event, therefore the organizers in Geneva did not have any reason to be afraid of American and European sanctions. "This is an international event. Similarly, we hold OSCE forums, parliamentary meetings, where half of the people in our delegation are on the sanctions list. It's impossible to limit people's presence at international sites, otherwise there will be no place to meet," Vladimir Dzhabarov concluded.
