Russia threatens to snub WEF Davos gathering

Russia's prime minister, Dmitri Medvedev, said he had raised the issue with Swiss President Alain Berset. Keystone

Moscow will not send a delegation to the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in the Swiss resort of Davos if prominent Russian businessmen are barred from the elite gathering, as press reports have suggested

“If decisions taken concerning Russian businessmen are not changed, we will have to decide to refuse the participation of Russian companies and officials to the Davos forum,” Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev said in Sicily. 

Medvedev, who was quoted by Russian news agencies, was attending a conference on Libya on the Italian island.

Last week the Financial Times reported that three businessmen – aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska, businessman Viktor Vekselberg and VTB Bank chief Andrei Kostin – had been informed that they would not be welcome at the elite gathering at the resort in eastern Switzerland, which next year takes place from January 22-25. All three have attended the Davos WEF meeting in the past.

The trio were hit by US sanctions in April that banned them from doing business with US citizens and froze their US assets. The newspaper suggested that the decision was a sign of the pressure international organisations were under and their wariness of dealing with those blacklisted by Washington.

Medvedev said he had spoken with Swiss President Alain Berset about this issue.

“The decision is very strange, at the least… I have just spoken to the Swiss president about this subject and told him how surprising it is for us, especially as WEF is a non-governmental organisation,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not attended the Davos meeting since 2009. Recently, Russia’s delegation has been headed by one of the country’s deputy prime ministers.

In 2015, WEF changed their status from non-profit foundation to international organisation.