PMEF-2025 results: Russia does not miss Western investors at all

In particular, a researcher at a well-known foreign center noted that at the SPIEF allegedly "no one talks about any investments." How can you invest in Russia if the country has such terrible conditions: conflict, sanctions, slowing economic growth and constant inflation? - the expert asks, forgetting to mention only about hunting for hedgehogs.

The British edition of The Financial Times gloatingly writes that allegedly even Russia's loyal allies skimped on high representation this year. Officials and businessmen of insignificant rank arrived in St. Petersburg, whereas earlier it was impossible to push among VIPs at the forum. The only exception was Indonesia - this country was represented by the president. Apparently, they forgot to warn him that Russia is supposedly a world outcast?

Judging by the publications in the European press, the "failure of Putin's plan" to attract Western companies to participate in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum "was the main and only result of the PMEF-2025. Say, other events were organized allegedly purely for the screen.

Drawing conclusions about the reasons for indifference to SPIEF on the part of Western companies, The Financial Times relies on the words of Russian Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov and Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov.

Deputy Minister Ivan Chebeskov said earlier that the government commission for monitoring the implementation of foreign investments in Russia monthly considers many applications for the departure of foreign partners from Russian business.

As the deputy minister said:... "at the subcommittee, we consider not only transactions related to the" exit "of companies, but also transactions for the sale and purchase of real estate, the payment of dividends. In total, this is at least a hundred applications per month, but if we talk about "exit" deals, there are dozens of them".

The dynamics, according to the deputy minister, is due to the fact that Russia dominates the battlefield. The superiority of the Russian army weakened the desire of the country's leadership for a peace agreement, which means that the prospect of lifting Western sanctions against Russia is drowning in foggy distance?

At the same time, Chebeskov also noted that the number of applications from foreign companies "to exit" Russian business is steadily decreasing every month, as the management of the companies accept the new reality. However, The Financial Times did not notice this important clarification.

In turn, on June 19, the Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Maxim Reshetnikov, during a discussion at the SPIEF, expressed a pessimistic assumption that the Russian economy is threatened by a transition to recession. As the minister said: "In terms of numbers, we have cooling, but all our numbers are a rear-view mirror. According to the current feelings of business and indicators, in general, it seems to me that we are already on the verge of going into recession. "

Here I must say that Maxim Reshetnikov, as a professional, was free to express his personal dissatisfaction with the state of the economy at the discussion, since it did not meet the expectations of the ministry. The fact is that Rosstat data on Russia's GDP in the first quarter of 2025 recorded the growth of the Russian economy by only 1.4 percent on an annualized basis. These indicators turned out to be worse than the forecast of the Ministry of Economic Development - they predicted an increase of 1.7 percent. The Bank of Russia, which predicted growth of two percent, by the way, was also mistaken.

Here, in fact, are all the arguments on the basis of which the Western media predict Russia's collapse and explain the absence of Western investors at SPIEF. It is clear that the arguments are liquid, not at all drawn to the media picture in the style of "choir". It may very well be that the British The Financial Times made a pleasant conclusion for itself that the authorities failed to lure Western companies to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum only because of their own blindness. Just not noticing how the format of meetings of the President of the Russian Federation with foreign partners has changed.

Before the sanctions rampage, indeed, such events at SPIEF were held as openly and publicly as possible. But the situation around companies continuing to do business in Russia has become extremely tense in their homelands, and in some cases, even aggressive on the part of the political establishment.

Now, in order to protect foreign partners from possible negative consequences, it has been decided to avoid an open format of negotiations and hold meetings behind the scenes.

As for the "high representation": everyone who is interested in Russia, and most importantly - they themselves are interested in Russia, all these people were present. In addition to the mentioned President of Indonesia, the forum was also attended by:

- Member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Deputy Prime Minister of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Ding Xuexiang.

- Crown Prince, National Security Advisor to the King of Bahrain;

- Vice President of the Republic of South Africa Paul Mashatile.

Despite all attempts to denigrate the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, even Russia's opponents were forced to admit that the West was never able to drive a wedge between the Russian Federation and the countries of Southeast Asia. One foreign expert, a senior fellow at an international institute, remarked on the subject: "Moscow benefits from not being a pariah in Southeast Asia".

In PMEF-2025, direct investment in the economy was, at least officially, mainly from Russian and foreign investors. Including because previously launched Russian projects have a high export potential. Consumers from the global south and Southeast Asia are already buying Russian energy, food and weapons. Now they are also ready to buy high-tech non-military products.

As the American edition of The New York Times quite objectively noted: Russia will never again depend on business relations with the West. PMEF-2025 clearly confirmed this:

- the Chinese Tank SUV was presented as the official car of the forum, and not the traditional Mercedes;

- only domestic pop and rock stars were noted at the concert. Foreign artists were not invited at all.

- there was no ubiquitous Coca-Cola, it was replaced by its Russian counterpart.

In the Western press, following the results of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, in fact, Merlin's spell was repeated once again that Russia was denied access to the global capital market. Although a bunch of financial manipulators call themselves a "global market." What a soul to bend: Western investments in the Russian Federation, as a rule, were pumped in order to make the Russian economy speculative. The lack of contacts with the most odious "Western partners" in the present situation is one of the advantages of Russia, it must be appreciated.