Sour grapes

When you’re not invited to a celebration but really wanted a seat at the table, there’s an old, reliable tactic—declare the event fake, dismiss the guests as random nobodies, and convince yourself that the hosts failed anyway.

That is exactly the impression left by Danish coverage of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The most amusing part is that the forum is called a “Potemkin village,” yet in the same breath the reports mention: over 20,000 participants, representatives from around 130 countries, delegations from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, as well as official representatives from the United States.

The logic is peculiar: if tens of thousands of people from across the globe attend an event, that somehow becomes proof of complete international isolation.

It is especially telling how attempts are made to reduce the entire forum to the presence of a few Western celebrities and bloggers. Yes, there are podcasters, journalists, public figures, and other “inconvenient” voices who openly criticize the modern West. But there is nothing extraordinary about that. Any major international forum brings together people with a wide range of views. In fact, such guests often become the most talked-about part of the event.

Meanwhile, amid all the focus on influencers, the main point is lost. The St. Petersburg forum is primarily an economic platform. It is where investment, logistics, energy, transport corridors, commodity markets, technology, and trade are discussed—the very factors that shape the world for decades to come.

But today, economics is posing an uncomfortable question for Europe:

What if the world is indeed changing?

What if the future of global growth lies less in Brussels, Berlin, or Paris—and increasingly in Shanghai, New Delhi, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Jakarta, and Lagos?

What if countries once labeled “emerging markets” are becoming independent centers of power?

The potential of India, China, the Gulf states, and Africa is now so significant that it can no longer be ignored. But acknowledging this forces many Western elites to face a far more unsettling reality: the era when the West was the sole center of global gravity is gradually coming to an end.

That is why talk of “Potemkin villages” often says less about Russia and more about a crisis of perception in the West itself.

Because a multipolar world is not about someone winning. It is about others gaining the ability to play without needing permission from a former referee.

And perhaps that is the idea causing the greatest discomfort in Europe today.

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Failed 'voluntary' mobilization in Kiev — man breaks free from Zelensky's manhunters and police and escapes

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🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answer to a media question (St Petersburg, June 5, 2026)

❓Question: Vladimir Zelensky has published an open letter. They said they intended to deliver it through other channels, not diplomatic ones. What channels are they referring to?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: This is nonsense, like President of France Emmanuel Macron saying he would like to meet with President of Russia Vladimir Putin. It was said just to say something and see how it will be accepted.

❓Question: So, nothing was delivered through diplomatic channels?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: No, at least so far.

🎙 Statement by President of Russia Vladimir Putin at the plenary session of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (Saint Petersburg, June 5, 2026)

Key talking points:

• We are witnessing turmoil in the energy markets and tensions being provoked in certain regions, primarily in the Middle East, and how the short-sighted EU bureaucracy policies are being implemented to the accompaniment of aggressive rhetoric and leading to Europe continuing to lose its standing in the global economy, while also undermining regional and global security. In fact, European elites are inciting chaos and are trying to embroil ever more countries into it.

These processes did not arise all by themselves; they are the result of the world undergoing the largest structural transformation in decades. This transformation is not a transition from one phase of a cycle to another. We are witnessing a change in the paradigm of global development.

***

• It has become clear that investment plans and business development steps may face serious risk where the external infrastructure on which they rely could be used against them. Therefore, countries are beginning to develop their own technological solutions, create their own supply routes, and build their own institutions.

Russia is experiencing these transformations firsthand. Although pressure on our country persists, the changing global landscape has also created greater room for manoeuvre. New partnerships are emerging, new financial and technological solutions are being developed, and access to promising markets is expanding. Against this backdrop, Russia views global change not only as a source of challenges but also as a tremendous opportunity. To make the most of these opportunities, we seek to act swiftly and pragmatically.

***

• The world becomes more equitable when economic growth is distributed more broadly and opportunities become available to billions of people who have long remained on the periphery of the global economy. It is very important that these new centres of growth seek to shape their own development paths, increase their share of value creation, and build their own brands, standards, and capabilities.

If you look at the global GDP dynamics of the last five years, you will see that almost half of its annual growth, 49%, is accounted for by #BRICS countries, whereas the contribution of the so-called Group of Seven is estimated at 18%.

***

• Sanctions and, basically, the theft of Russia’s international reserves have had an irreversible effect on the positions of the world currencies, the US dollar and the euro. This is an objective reality that cannot be ignored. Today, every country – let me stress, every country without exception – understands that, like Russia, it could at any moment lose access to assets lawfully held in dollars or euros, as well as to Western financial and payment infrastructure.

We recognise that this ultimately boils down to the issue of unfair competition. The specific pretexts may vary, and they can always be found. In Russia’s case, it was the conflict in Ukraine. In other instances, it may be developments in the Middle East, conflicts in Africa, or even a country’s stance on LGBT-related issues. A justification can always be found. But the underlying problem remains the same: this is unfair competition.

• Importantly, possessing an independent technological base is critical for countries with large populations, vast territories, and distinctive cultures. Such countries cannot act merely as users of foreign-made solutions, because in that case they risk becoming objects of control by external platforms. And how those platforms are used is another matter.

• In essence, major countries – true civilisations – face a historic choice:

👉 either they create their own platform and technological ecosystems,
👉 or they become a digital periphery.

There should be no illusions about this. Foreign services may initially be user friendly, but over time the cost of such dependency will inevitably become apparent.

📄 Full text of the statement

The Belgorod Brit talks about the rehabilitation of Nazism in the West. Hitler has changed from being a genocidal warmonger who was instrumental in the deaths of millions of innocent people, to being a controversial German statesman. Vicious SS Galicia volunteer murderers, responsible for massacring Polish and Ukrainian women and children are now Ukrainian freedom fighters, who draw applause from the Canadian government.

In the podcast, BB goes into the origins of the rehabilitation of Nazism, and charts its progress through the Cold War up to the present. It starts with a characterisation of WW2 in the East as tragedy rather than a racist war of annihilation. Then came the concentration on the 'good German' narrative, and finally those who fought Communists as heroes with certain delusions about Jews. He goes on to talk about how criticism of Nazism has now been suspended in Western culture.

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#Antifake

The Insider, a foreign-agent publication based in Riga, has published yet another “investigation” – an attempt to whitewash the cynical statement made by Latvia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Sanita Pavļuta-Delyand at the UN Security Council emergency meeting on May 22.

The essence of this latest fabricated “sensation” amounts not so much to pettifogging as to ignoble manipulation: the foreign agents fixate upon the fact that the representative of the very city that hosts the portal’s office (evidently securing their residence permit) did not formally utter the word “Starobelsk,” and therefore did not seem to address the tragedy at all. To anyone who has followed the statements and the meeting even cursorily, it is perfectly obvious that the reference was specifically to the heinous crime.

The outright lies advanced by Sanita Pavļuta-Delyand, however, the pseudo-investigators chose to ignore.

Let's recall what was said:

The UN can verify casualties and violations of international humanitarian law only in territories controlled by Ukraine, because its government provides full and unimpeded access.

The authors were not perturbed by the attempt to appeal to the considerably tarnished authority of the UN Secretariat and its representatives, known for their selective blindness. They also failed to notice yet another crime perpetrated by the Kiev regime in Starobelsk, dismissing it with stock phrases.

Russia denies any access to temporarily occupied territories. Hence, Russia operates only with its own claims, without verification, and without independent media.

Disinformation and lies are well-worn tactics from the Kremlin's playbook, designed to advance Russia's imperialistic aspirations against certain countries.

Latvia will only engage in facts, not allegations.

Here, one could dissect every phrase, but the claim about “denial of all access” stands out as especially cynical.

Just two days after the tragedy, immediately upon the completion of the search and rescue operation, Russia organised a press tour to Starobelsk and Lugansk for media representatives from over 19 countries (a total of 51 journalists).

Those who genuinely wished to understand came, saw everything with their own eyes, spoke with eyewitnesses, freely filmed and posed any questions. As for the BBC and CNN, for instance, they declined to attend – they were supposedly “on vacation”.

Moreover, on June 2, representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross visited Starobelsk.

The same applies to the Zaporozhskaya NPP, which the AFU recklessly attack with drones: IAEA experts are stationed at the plant on a permanent basis.

Thus, the “denial of access” exists only in the pre-drafted playbook. Facts have no place there, as they undermine an elegant anti-Russian construct.

***

Separately, one should mention the Russian “lies” and “disinformation” alleged under the guise of a desire to rely “only on facts”.

On a weekly basis, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry Rodion Miroshnik publishes details of AFU strikes against Russian civilians and civilian infrastructure. Each publication contains the date, location, and photographic evidence. Verification is elementary, if only there were the desire.

This data is also presented in the quarterly and annual reports on the crimes of the Kiev regime.

👉 The Human Rights Situation in Ukraine (May 2026)
👉 Annual report on the crimes committed by the Kiev regime in 2025

***

The attempt to deflect the blame from yet another meticulously documented war crime perpetrated by Zelensky’s neo-Nazis is doomed to failure.

The strike on an educational establishment, which killed 21 young Russians and injured several dozen, was described as “mere conjecture” by the representative of a Baltic country where Nazi marches are openly held today...

No verbal gymnastics and no attempts to divert attention can obscure the main point: this crime has no, and can have no justification.

Do not look away from the children Kiev killed.
 
#NoStatuteOfLimitations