Opening sessions at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum can be tricky things to get right. Especially when it's a Friday, and it's the 13th annual forum.
First, there's the protocol. The first session has to have heads of state, and current and former prime ministers, so that the proper protocol is observed.
These high personages can't always make it on time, due to scheduling problems that mere mortals like you and I can only guess at. That means you often end up with all the other sessions that day running late. Especially those sessions with leading economic experts (but less impressive titles), who invariably have very interesting things to say - but wind up with five minutes to deliver a half-hour speech.
As it happened, the forum started 47 minutes late - not a record for a Russian business meeting, by any means - when President Dmitry Medvedev strode purposefully into Pavilion No. 4 to a fanfare of piped martial music. Out in Pavilion No. 6, safely out of question-and-answer range, the assembled press corps followed proceedings via the wonders of a (sometimes reliable) video link that flipped intermittently between speakers' original language and Russian dubbing and a (more reliable) live web feed.
The other speakers trooped out on stage in a roll call of former political superstars - Germany's Gerhard Schroeder and Japan's Junichiro Koizumi - and current leaders of countries without much bilateral trade with Russia (Gloria Arroyo of The Philippines).
Why the event (or the president) was late was not clear, and Medvedev launched straight into his economic forum stump speech without bothering to blame his late appearance on the traffic jams on NevskyProspekt and his lack of a flashing blue light, a missing foreign guest, or even a last-minute conference call with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Any suspense slowly evaporated, however, a few minutes into the speech. It soon became clear that, quips about the bad weather matching the miserable economic climate aside, it was practically the same speech Medvedev has been working on and perfecting for the last few months.
The world needs to move away from the dollar as a single supra-reserve currency, and needs new financial architecture to avoid the poor regulation of the past, Medvedev said. Oh, and the rouble should be aregional reserve currency (please note that, Mr. Lukashenko, when we offer you a ruble-denominated loan).
Or to paraphrase ‘The Incredibles', when all currencies are supra, no currencies are supra. Or something like that, I think.
The same idea was promoted at the G20 in London in April, where other leaders gave Medvedev's "reserve currency" speech a polite hearing, then went on to discuss a more immediate set of anti-crisis measures.
Today, there were only a few (minor) digs at the American dollar, which presumably augurs well for Medvedev's meetings with President Barack Obama in Russia next month.
Medvedev also saw shoots of global economic recovery in recent weeks, and noted that stock markets were recovering.
But he warned forum participants - such as Renaissance Capital, the investment bank that it had its own mini-pavilion nearby at the forum - that it might be too soon to start celebrating.
'In the weeks preceding the forum in major global financial markets certain signs of revival have been observed, which has prompted some analysts to say that the bottom of the economic crisis has passed," Medvedev said, adding: "But in my view, it is too soon to crack open the champagne."
At which point, presumably, the catering staff waiting nearby for the end of his speech put the bubbly back on ice. After all, it was still only 11:30 in the morning.
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