Russia to deliver upbeat economic message in Davos

Russia is in a good position to deliver an upbeat message to the World Economic Forum in Davos, with the event opening up opportunities to promote Russian modernization.

Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev, who delayed his coming to the 41st session of the World Economic Forum in Davos due to the tragic event in Domodedovo airport on Monday, has reduced his agenda to two events, presidential spokeswoman Natalya Timakova told Itar-Tass. The president "will meet representatives of the business council, which involves the leaders of 100 key world companies. Then he will speak at the Davos Forum," she said.According to presidential aide, Arkady Dvorkovich, the key issue for the President will be Russia’s readiness to proceed with international cooperation and modernization."The main signal the president is going to give is that Russia is open for investments, for business, for doing business together, for developing cooperation within the framework of the modernization strategy." Talking to Business RT, Roland Nash of Verno Capital said Medvedev had good reason to deliver an upbeat message about Russia.“I think, for the first time a Russian leader is going to Davos with lots of positive material behind him. So, when President Medvedev gets up and speaks in Davos, he’ll be on the back on the Pepsi deal at the end of last year, $3.8 billion, the BP – Rosneft deal at the beginning of this year, the opening of the first pipeline to China on January 1 – there’s a lot of really good material. He should be able to emphasize the opportunities that exist for investing into Russia and this gives him a great platform to go out there and deliver a strong message about why the West should be investing into Russia.”Davos will also offer a chance to assess the global growth risks according to Natalya Orlova from Alfa Bank. “The first question, I think, is how sustainable is the current recovery of global commodity prices, because, unfortunately, Russia is still a very big oil player and we have to take it into account. I think, the second question is definitely how sustainable the economic recovery in the United States and Europe. And also now, I think, we have a lot of concerns about thesustainability of debt servicing in very big countries andalso we have to remember that Russia is a holder oflarge Central Bank reserves. So, one of the strategic interests for Russia is to understandwhat will the European countries and the US strategy in servicing their debt obligations.”