President Vladimir Putin delivered his keynote address at the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Friday, leaning heavily on familiar talking points about a “multipolar” world while downplaying the mounting economic headwinds hitting Russia amid its war against Ukraine.
The plenary session, scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. local time, started around an hour late. Indian journalist Greeta Mohan moderated the panel, which, besides Putin, included the presidents of Uzbekistan and Tanzania, as well as Chinese Vice President Han Zheng.
Before Putin took the stage, organizers screened an AI-generated video depicting Russia across three centuries as a historic global stabilizer. A narrator describes Russia as a country “that remembers the lessons of history” and remains “ready for partnerships that span decades to come.”
The video concludes by pitching Russia as the definitive anchor for future global order, calling it “the place where dialogue begins” and “the guarantor that agreements will actually work.”
Opening his speech with brief references to the global energy crisis and war in the Middle East, Putin proclaimed that the world is undergoing fundamental geopolitical and economic shifts. “We are not just witnessing a transition from one phase to another, but the transformation of the development paradigm itself,” he said.
