As some 20,000 people from more than 100 countries gathered in St. Petersburg, Russia for the June 3-5 annual Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Kiev launched a major drone attack on the city. According to the Belarus-based Military Summary Channel on YouTube, which uses both Russian and Ukrainian sources, hundreds of drones were aimed at targets in St. Petersburg, some of which succeeded in setting oil storage tanks on fire and possibly damaging some Baltic Fleet ships. There is video evidence that the drones approached from the Gulf of Finland, meaning that they crossed the airspace of NATO countries. Estonia declared an air raid alert during the attack.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov gave a swift and uncompromising reply to the attacks on the eve of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. “We strongly condemn these criminal actions. Behind them, we see a whole group of sponsors of the Kiev regime who continue to up the ante. They will not stop at any provocation and are in no way inclined to slow down their efforts to make life difficult for us. But these attempts are doomed to failure.”
Speaking on the sidelines of the SPIEF, Ryabkov urged people to pay attention to Russia’s military doctrine. “The message in these documents,” he underlined, “is that an attack on Russia, on its territorial integrity, by aggressors, including those who may not possess such [nuclear] weapons, could, in the worst-case scenario, lead to us responding with these means.”
President Putin is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the conference’s closing plenary session on June 5, followed by a major press conference. Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov briefed reporters June 2 that Putin will also meet with the heads of international news agencies on June 4. He is also scheduled to meet separately with Han Zheng, the Vice-President of China; Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev; and Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, among others.
Saudi Arabia will be the SPIEF guest country this year. “This was agreed way back two years ago. The high-level delegation from that country will be led by the Minister of Energy, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud.” The delegations “will include the Minister of industry, the minister of transport and logistics, approximately 200 representatives from key government agencies and organizations of the Kingdom, as well as representatives from banks and the oil company Saudi Aramco. In other words, the delegation will include many, many important businesspeople.”
Ushakov added: “This year, for the first time in several years, an official US delegation led by Rodney Cook, the head of the US Commission on Fine Arts, will be attending the forum.”
