Western coverage mocked the foreign guest list at the 2026 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, laughing at how low Russia had sunk, and moved on. Compare the conspiracists and convicted criminals with the world leaders who once attended and the story of the decline of “Putin’s Davos” writes itself.That story is true. But the freak show distracts from the real work that is happening behind the scenes, where the global far-right gets to meet and exchange ideas with Russia at the center of it all.
The story practically wrote itself. The forum that once hosted Angela Merkel and Xi Jinping now attracts a guest list that resembles a casting call for a straight-to-streaming movie about a washed-up superpower. The presidents who once treated St. Petersburg as a serious diplomatic stop are gone. This year, the most prominent foreign heads of state came from Uzbekistan and Tanzania, alongside delegations from the Taliban and North Korea.
Far-right American commentator Candace Owens, who built part of her following by claiming that France's first lady was born a man, toured Moscow as part of a “family vacation.” American actor Steven Seagal, who received his Russian citizenship directly from President Vladimir Putin and now serves as the Russian Foreign Ministry's special representative for humanitarian ties with the United States and Japan, used the forum to call for renewed friendship between Moscow and Washington. Former U.S. Marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter who was convicted in a child sex offense sting operation and now works as a regular contributor to RT.
