The three-day international event focuses on key economic issues in Russia and the broader multipolar world
© Sputnik / Alexei Danichev
Russia is hosting the 28th annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2025), which began on Wednesday. Thousands of participants are expected to attend the three-day event.
This year’s main theme is ‘Common Values – the Basis for Growth in a Multipolar World’. According to the forum’s program, discussions will focus on global economic challenges, cooperation models, and sustainable development amid geopolitical turbulence.
The agenda includes around 150 events across five tracks: ‘World Economy: New Platform for Global Growth’, ‘Russian Economy: New Quality of Growth’, ‘Man in a New World’, ‘Living Environment’, and ‘Technology: Striving for Leadership’. The program features panel discussions, SME forums, and creative industry sessions.
SPIEF 2025 will also host 19 business dialogue meetings between Russia and its key partners, including Africa, Brazil, and the UAE, as well as EAEU-ASEAN discussions. The International Youth Economic Forum ‘Day of the Future’ is also scheduled during the event.
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18 June 2025
10:49 GMT
Most foreign companies that stayed in Russia despite Western sanctions are acting “correctly,” First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said at SPIEF 2025. He noted these firms are investing in scientific and technical development, and, in general, acting in a way that will allow them to retain their market share.
Manturov emphasized that Russia is not rejecting foreign investment, but stressed that the country is capable of operating under sanctions and managing complex import substitution. He added that Moscow must be selective with investment partners and focus on fostering technological capabilities.
“In the future, we must establish clear principles for doing business with foreign investors. We’re not turning them away, but investment must be smart — not just about building capacity, but about developing new technological competencies where additional growth is needed,” Manturov stated.
- 10:25 GMT
Small and medium-sized businesses are best positioned to operate under Western sanctions, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said at SPIEF 2025. These businesses make up 21.7% of the national economy and employ more than 29 million people, he noted.
“In the context of sanctions and today’s global challenges, small and medium-sized businesses are more capable of adapting to form new transport and logistics chains, supply export and import goods, and produce essential items under import substitution goals aligned with our economic restructuring,” Novak said.
- 09:28 GMT
Russia’s Federal Medical and Biological Agency (FMBA) has offered SPIEF 2025 participants a chance to test their focus with an interactive device: if your concentration holds, a flower blooms; if your mind drifts, it doesn’t. The creators say the tool helps monitor brain function.
- 08:18 GMT
SPIEF 2025 has opened on a grand scale, drawing over 20,000 participants from 140 countries and territories. The forum spans 201,000 square meters of exhibitions and includes 20 business dialogues, along with SCO, BRICS, and EAEU business forums.
The program also features the SME Forum, Creative Industries Forum, Drug Safety Forum, Business Twenty Forum, and the International Youth Economic Forum “Day of the Future,” among others.
SPIEF 2025 kicks off in St. PetersburgThe doors have just opened, marking the start of one of the world’s biggest business forums.Stay tuned for key moments, high-level talks, and global insights from the heart of Russia’s economic hub. https://t.co/j5ez0tQJZFpic.twitter.com/CSKlvWwl00— Sputnik Africa (@sputnik_africa) June 18, 2025
- 08:11 GMT
The world is poised for dramatic change over the next 25 years, with Global South nations leading the transformation, participants at the ‘Forming a New Platform for Global Growth’ panel at SPIEF 2025 have said.
“If we look at the economic history of the last hundred years, everything that served as a platform for growth came from Western countries – Europe, the USA. Technological solutions, trade, finance – everything went through them,” Maksim Oreshkin, deputy head of President Vladimir Putin’s administration and session moderator has stated.
“Now everything is changing. Technological competencies are emerging in Russia, China, India, and other countries,” he continued. “New trade and logistics corridors are being created that connect these countries directly, along with systems of added value that bypass Western economies.”
- 07:54 GMT
Western sanctions have created “golden opportunities” for Russian businesses to deepen ties with friendly nations, including India and other BRICS members, Rishabh Sethi, president of the Indian Centre for Promotion of International Initiatives, has told RT on the sidelines of SPIEF 2025.
“When the [Ukraine] special military operation started, Russia and India reached new heights in business cooperation,” he said. “Every problem gives you new opportunities, and such problems [as sanctions] have created golden opportunities for both Russia and India.” Sethi noted that sanctions have backfired on Western countries, which now face problems with natural resources and have limited space for growth.
Russia, India, and their partners play a “major role” in shaping a new multipolar world, he said, including through supporting countries that have been pressured or neglected by the West.
- 06:49 GMT
SPIEF 2025 is “absolutely insane, it’s huge,” RT correspondent Chay Bowes reported from St. Petersburg as the forum kicked off on Wednesday. He highlighted the impressive scale of the event, saying it remains “absolutely remarkable” despite three years of Western sanctions on Russia.
“The idea that this country is isolated is probably one of the most retarded things,” Bowes said in a video posted on X, adding that the forum is “all about cooperation.”
“It’s all about sharing and building economic ties with the Global South,” he added. “And when you look at the G7… they always seem focused on how to oppress and prevent partnership. But what Russia’s focused on, and all its partner countries here… is a push for collaboration, not isolation.”
Welcome to SPIEF St Petersburg Russia, where one of the biggest economic meetings on earth is taking place20,000 delegates from 140 countries are here. While the "G7" talk about restriction and exclusion, here they talk about partnership. Why dont you know anything about it? pic.twitter.com/WhN8w0cwfz
— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) June 18, 2025
- 06:48 GMT
The G7 nations are no longer the engines of global growth, with new centers emerging, Maksim Oreshkin, the deputy head of President Vladimir Putin’s administration, has said at SPIEF 2025.
“The shifts we see today are the result of structural changes in the global economy,” he stated. “Power centers are changing. The so-called ‘Big Seven’, which hasn’t been ‘big’ for a long time, is being replaced by new growth hubs,” he added, pointing to the rise of countries in the Global South and East.
- 06:20 GMT
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) plans to sign over ten agreements with foreign partners from the UAE, China, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, and other countries at SPIEF 2025, CEO Kirill Dmitriev has announced on Telegram. The deals will span transport, medicine, technology, e-commerce, food production, pharmaceuticals, and education.
- 06:03 GMT
A number of Russian regions are showcasing innovative projects at SPIEF 2025. Chelyabinsk is featuring two robots poised for a chess match, while Bashkortostan’s stand includes a 6.5-meter-tall beekeeper bear clad in honey armor.
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