AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
To St. Petersburg now, where Russia's political and business elite gathered for a marquee economic forum. It's a pet project of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and as NPR's Charles Maynes reports, this year's meeting was shadowed by Ukraine.
CHARLES MAYNES, BYLINE: For a gathering that claimed to be about building a stable future, its start was anything but.
IRINA MARTINYETS: (Speaking Russian).
MAYNES: Irina Martinyets, a local university student, tells me she woke up to a loud explosion early Wednesday. Ukrainian drones had struck an oil terminal not far from her apartment, sending a giant plume of smoke over the city just as thousands of guests and Martinyets, an event photographer, were set to arrive.
MARTINYETS: (Speaking Russian).
MAYNES: "Of course, the timing of the attack wasn't by accident," she says, "and of course it was scary."
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
MAYNES: The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum has long been associated with President Vladimir Putin, himself a native of this city. It's an event to showcase Russia as an emerging economic powerhouse, where traditions and technology not only meet - they're marketed.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
BURANOVSKIYE BABUSHKI: (Singing in non-English language).
MAYNES: The Buranovskiye Babushki, elderly women who were runners up at the Eurovision Song Contest more than a decade ago, shimmied with guest to their brand of happy pop.
(SOUNDBITE OF ROBOTS WHIRRING)
MAYNES: Robots marched alongside bureaucrats and pro-forma blue suits. And Russia's 19th-century literary giants are turned into literal giants for the hipster generation. Massive busts of writers like Dostoevsky and Tolstoy wearing shades, their famously scruffy beards now quaffed and cool. But for all the curiosities, cringe and fun, the forum has taken on darker political baggage since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with the Kremlin eager to show it's not cowed despite more than four years of all-out war and Western sanctions.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: (Non-English language spoken).
MAYNES: In his plenary address, President Putin insisted the economy was in fundamentally good shape, ignoring signs of an impending recession, just as he insisted Russian forces were advancing in Ukraine despite months of what battlefield map show to be incremental gains at best.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PUTIN: (Non-English language spoken).
MAYNES: "The whole country is watching you, and the whole country is proud of you," said Putin addressing his troops directly. "Now get back to work, my brothers."
(APPLAUSE)
FYODOR LUKYANOV: I think we are moving or approaching a very decisive phase of this conflict because continuation as it is harms everybody.
MAYNES: Fyodor Lukyanov is editor of Russia In Global Affairs magazine. He says, most understand the war is at an impasse. Only Lukyanov says there's uncertainty over what happens next, a move towards diplomacy or escalation.
LUKYANOV: The question is, in which form the breakthrough will come.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RODNEY COOK: I do give a good hello from your friend President Trump.
MAYNES: A White House official named Rodney Cook, President Trump's commissioner of the Arts and man in charge of the White House ballroom project, also attended as part of a cultural round table, his trip the first direct contact between Russian officials and the Trump administration in months. Kirill Dmitriev, the Kremlin's point man for negotiations with the White House, told me Cook's presence had reopened the door for U.S.-Russian cooperation on a range of issues, including Ukraine.
KIRILL DMITRIEV: Having a representative of President Trump on culture here in St. Petersburg forum was very positive. There are lots of areas where, by working together, we can make the world a better place.
MAYNES: Whether that's more Russian branding or a real possibility remains to be seen. Irina Martinyets, the university student and photographer, says she, for one, would welcome peace.
MARTINYETS: (Speaking Russian).
MAYNES: "Of course, everyone is tired from the drones, economic crises and a war with no end."
MARTINYETS: (Non-English language spoken).
MAYNES: "I just want the best for my country because I love it," she adds, pointing at the stands around us, each one highlighting something Russia has to offer, something else Russia could be.
Charles Maynes, NPR News, St. Petersburg. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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