[1/2] Participants gather near a screen showing Russian President Vladimir Putin, who delivers a speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Saint Petersburg, Russia June 17, 2022.
The forum in St Petersburg, the former imperial capital built by Tsar Peter the Great 300 years ago as a "window" to Europe, has been held since 1997 and is cast by many officials as Russia's answer to the World Economic Forum held in Davos.
Western journalists have never before been banned from the forum in such a blanket way.
"It has indeed been decided this time not to accredit publications from unfriendly countries to the SPIEF," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS, using the acronym for the forum.
"Unfriendly countries" is a definition used by Moscow to describe those who have sanctioned it over the war in Ukraine.
Persons:
Vladimir Putin, Anton Vaganov, Tsar Peter the Great, Dmitry Peskov, Peskov, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Alexander Novak, Putin, Guy Faulconbridge, Christina Fincher, Angus MacSwan
Organizations:
St ., Economic, REUTERS, St Petersburg, Reuters, Russian, Thomson
Locations:
St, St . Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Russia, MOSCOW, St Petersburg, Europe, Davos, Moscow, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, China