German business leaders to attend Putin's economic forum
FILE PHOTO - Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg. (is associated with: «German business leaders to attend Putin's economic forum») -/Kremlin/dpa After four years of absence due to Moscow's war in Ukraine, members of the German business community are set to officially attend the upcoming economic forum in the northern Russian city of St Petersburg. "Not least with a view to the period following a ceasefire, we want, like other major Western countries, to maintain the economic bridge to Russia and protect the more than €100 billion ($116 billion) of German assets in Russia," Matthias Schepp, chairman of the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce, told dpa. Amid continuing Western sanctions on thousands of Russian companies, organizations and individuals, US and French representatives returned to the event last year, participating in its so-called business dialogue component. "The West should not leave Russia, its large market and its raw materials to Asia in the long term," said Schepp. The Chinese alone founded 1,400 new companies in Russia in the first quarter of this year, he noted. According to the programme of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), German participants in the business dialogue include Stefan Dürr, a dairy producer operating in Russia with the EkoNiva Group, and Thomas Bruch, the longstanding managing director of Globus Holding. Together with some 1,600 other German companies, the Globus chain remains active in Russia, with an estimated turnover of around €20 billion last year, according to the chamber. However, due to the sanctions, the trade volume between Germany and Russia last year fell beneath €10 billion. Until the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Germany was Russia's largest European trading partner, with a volume of €59.7 billion in 2021 and €80 billion at its peak in 2012.
