Yes, it was a triumph.  If it was an opera, we would still be on our feet, clapping like crazy and shouting Bravo!

The mood was upbeat, celebratory and jubilant and the success was of Grand Slam nature!  Congratulations Russia.

Here are a few sideline events:

• Culture:  The large installation of Gazprom showcased the traditions of the peoples from all Russian regions, their national costumes, cuisine, clothing, culture, and music.  More than 400 musicians, artists, craftsmen, designers, lecturers and other representatives of the creative industries from 15 regions of the Russian North were involved in the preparation of the festival.
• Russia aims to become one of top five global food exports by 2030.  In recent years, Russia has increased its food exports to 160 countries. From 2013, before the first sanctions, agricultural exports increased by 2.5 times.  Russian Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko reported this discussing Russia’s contribution to ensuring global food security at the SPIEF.  “Currently, we can say that the industry is developing not only within the framework of import substitution, but is also increasing its export potential,” she said.

The Games:  Goodbye to the Olympics shenanigans of the past years. The Friendship Games, the BRICS Games, and the Games of the Future tournament will be held in Russia.  This was announced at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. A large-scale sporting program was organized as part of the SPIEF 2023, and agreements were signed to:

▪️ hold a forum on the interaction of sports and bookmakers;
▪️ hold the Summer Games of the Deaflympians “We are together. Sport” in Ufa.

And business was done:

⚡️ More than 900 agreements were signed at SPIEF for total worth of 3.86 trillion rubles.  This refers only to those agreements that are not protected by non-disclosure agreements.

This is how spectacularly the EU and NATO failed to isolate Russia:

150 countries (and 25 “unfriendly” countries) took part in the SPIEF, many of them participating incognito, as everybody is interested in the development of Eurasian cooperation.  Anton Kobyakov, Advisor to the Russian President.

17,000 persons took part in the forum, with the most numerous delegations coming from:

🇦🇪 the UAE;
🇨🇳 China;
🇮🇳 India;
🇲🇲 Myanmar;
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan;
🇨🇺 Cuba;
🇺🇸 the USA.

The forum was attended by 150 high-ranking officials from foreign countries, with the President of the UAE leading the guest country delegation at SPIEF. The President of Algeria and the Prime Minister of Cuba were also in attendance.

Russia announced its flagship project, next to China’s Belt and Road.   Building support for the Greater Eurasian Partnership project could be seen as the flagship project of Russia’s foreign policy, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.

“Our flagship foreign political project is to [build] support for the concept of the Greater Eurasian Partnership. What we’re talking about is facilitating the objective process of forming a broad integrative configuration that is open for all countries and associations across our vast continent. Practical steps are already being made [in this direction],” Lavrov said.

Additionally, many problem-solving sessions were held.  (And I found Glazyev, which I did not find before).

The EAEU–ASEAN business dialogue at the SPIEF outlined the main barriers hindering the growth of cooperation.

According to Sergey Glazyev, Member of the Board, Minister in Charge of Integration and Macroeconomics of the EEC, they are as follows:

▪️ Lack of infrastructure for payment and settlement relations.
▪️ Trade infrastructure, primarily insurance for foreign trade operations, depends on third countries.
▪️ The problem of trade financing.
▪️ A good contact has been achieved at the level of commissions and governments, still business circles poorly know the market opportunities.

The business dialogue was devoted to finding ways of effective communication in order to solve these problems.

Is it my imagination or has one giant step for mankind just been taken at this Spief?