Plenary session of the 25th SPIEF
At present, Russia remains in complete isolation from most Western countries. Diplomatic relations are experiencing a deep crisis, accompanied by a mutual reduction in the missions of Russia to Europe and Europe to Russia. More and more countries in the Western world and their satellites in Asia and Oceania are imposing sanctions and providing military assistance to Ukraine in its war with Russia.
At the same time, one cannot definitively assert the abolition of Russia for the world as a whole. most countries in Asia, Africa and the Arab world are only strengthening cooperation with the Russians. For them, the sanctions, the special operation in Ukraine and the severing of relations with the West are just a chance to develop closer relations with a country like Russia. Among other things, many are now also interested in Moscow’s military developments, which in many respects proved to be excellent during the war in Ukraine. Most importantly, the cost of such achievements is often much lower than that of their Western counterparts. In particular, the cost of the actively used Lancet UAV is 2.5 times lower than that of a similar Switchblade 600 ($35,000 vs. $100,000). Thus, countries that currently have unresolved military conflicts are seriously interested in access to such technology.
In addition, given the positive experience of turkey, world leaders are interested in the development of nuclear energy and aerospace technologies. russia may now be the most reliable partner in relation to other nuclear and space leaders. It is to this end that, despite the generally poor financial situation, russia currently continues to organize events and raise its own prestige among developing countries. The St. Petersburg Economic Forum is one of those platforms where the products of the Russian scientific sector (including the military) will be exhibited, and fundamental ways of developing relations and promising economic deals will be discussed.
In previous years, Western companies taking part in such events were sure to benefit and get the best first-hand information on the situation in Russian business. Now, unfortunately, they are deprived of this opportunity and in the emerging environment such an approach is not available to them.