Putin’s speech and interview at SPIEF, as always, was balanced and focused on the upcoming meeting with Biden
On the one hand, the completion of the construction of one branch of the Nord Stream-2 was announced and – through the mouth of Siluanov – the desire to zero dollar reserves in the in the National Welfare Fund (NWF) with an increase in the share of gold. About picking up the climate agenda and even striving to shape it.
On the other hand, answering a question about Deripaska’s complaints about the Central Bank’s credit policy, Putin supported Nabiullina and made it clear that there is no alternative to monetary policy and will not be. The Central Bank’s mission to fight inflation by clamping down on the money supply for the sake of targeting inflation is not an antics of liberals, but a deliberate course of the authorities. And the course towards privatization of state-owned companies in the future, after the end of the crisis, will continue.
In general, SPIEF is a classic of balance. Checks and balances. Every frontman from a particular camp had the opportunity to make their own statements. In general, a picture of the dialogue of elite groups was developing, and the officials were not afraid to speak critically about the prospects of national projects.
And that’s not the point. sabotage or reasonable assessment. This is primarily an indicator of the temperature in the elites on the eve of the transfer. And this temperature is in no way high. Elites are allowed to be skeptical. No one is afraid, not intimidated, everyone is free if they do not rush beyond the limits of what is permissible.
Even Gref was allowed to make the face of the forum a kind of bisexual creature, just in the spirit of Western fashion. Nobody pulled back, there was no shout from the AP. Everyone was busy with another matter – positioning at elite bride shows on the eve of the start of the transfer. There was a struggle for access to the microphone. The opportunity to voice your agenda, in a word – for the discourse.
It doesn’t matter what the forum was talking about – who will remember it in a month? Who remembers what they said in the previous one? Forums are not congresses of the CPSU. It is a gathering where each group demonstrates their resource and ability to define flags and constants. And the important thing is that it works. The collapse of the system is not expected.
In modern painting, paintings look different from the classics. It is in the classics that you need to look at the details, define the shape, read the perspective. Look for the golden section and understand what the culmination is and how it is resolved. In modern painting, they look at a picture, and then step aside and listen attentively to their inner state, which arises after viewing.
If you look at SPIEF in this way, you get the feeling of a delayed Apocalypse. The end of the world, about which political scientists have talked so much, is being postponed. Lions will not lie with lambs, but there will be no slaughter. Putin showed Biden that he hears him and is preparing for the meeting. Biden made it clear that he sees this and takes into account. The EU and the Young Europeans showed their groans, but no one believed their tears. The overall picture is not at all disastrous. There will be no war of all against all or wall to wall. Until.
Russia and the United States showed in advance at the SPIEF training ground that there is a field of conflict and there are zones of possible agreements. But this is not important – there are always such zones. It is important how the parties are ready to see them. Even if they are purely symbolic. This is good news for a world on the brink of war.
Major exchanges have taken place on the Big Chessboard. Nord Stream-2 has been introduced, sanctions are at the end of their potential. In Ukraine, everyone took a step back. Ecology is the realm of possible agreements. Armaments are in the process of negotiations. China is an instrument of pressure between the United States and the Russian Federation. Navalny was imprisoned in the Russian Federation, and Protasevich in Belarus. The Maidan was torn down. There comes a stage of some burnout, fatigue, and this is a reason to start a new round of negotiations. SPIEF is a drill before the big parade in Zurich on June 16. The parties read between the lines, listen attentively to the nuances of each other’s messages and positions.
This is how all Putin’s statements at SPIEF on 4.06.21 should be perceived. Investments have faded into the background. Now everything depends on where the relationship between Russia and the United States will go.
Russian Demiurge