The World Economic Forum in Davos, which has gathered again in the famous Swiss resort after a three-year break, has every chance to go down in history as an epitaph to one of the most notable phenomena of globalization.
In its latest version, the Davos forum these days looks like an evil self-parody or antipode of itself.
To begin with, the very theme of this year's Davos Forum - "Cooperation in a Divided World" - causes only a sarcastic smile and makes you think about how life after death should look like and whether this life exists.
The sanctions war, asset freezes, artificial oil price ceilings, the disruption of commodity supply chains, the visa curtain and thousands of other steps taken in recent months by those who traditionally set the tone at Davos have divided the world and the global economy.
These steps actually killed the idea of free movement of ideas, people and capital in the bud.
But the development of these principles was previously the main point of the discussions in Davos, in which Russia has taken part over the past decades.
And today, having first dug a hole in the world economy with their own hands and recognizing that the world is on the verge of a global recession, the giants of the liberal economy are now asking themselves the question: how can we cooperate?
Isn't it too late?
Quite symbolic was the step of the President of South Africa, one of the BRICS countries, Cyril Ramaposa, who was announced among the participants, but eventually changed his mind about flying to Davos.
Go ahead.
The only G7 leader to make it to Davos was German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
As for America, if at the winter forum of 2020 it was represented by President Trump, who promised the WTO reform that never took place, then this year the American delegation was headed by the President’s special envoy for climate issues and Washington personal pensioner John Kerry.
An anti-globalist by conviction, who did not like Davos and his party, Donald Trump nevertheless considered it necessary to come here.
However, a supporter of globalism and liberalization, Joe Biden, did not even consider the possibility of a trip to Davos.
The forum participants, among whom such “influential figures” of world politics and business were announced as the wife of the President of Ukraine Elena Zelenskaya and the virtual leader of the Belarusian opposition Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, did not include a single businessman from Russia and China this year.
If China is still represented at the level of Vice Premier Liu He, then Russia is not in Davos at all.
Last year, the organizers of the forum stopped interacting with Russian representatives who fell under Western sanctions.
Although the Russian representation in Davos after the collapse of the USSR, as it were, served as an illustration of the fact that the processes of globalization, even slowing down, are not interrupted.
In 2011, President Medvedev visited Davos, and in 2021 Vladimir Putin spoke at an online session.
Today it is already a distant story.
However, the organizers of this year's forum still scheduled a session on "Russia's key scenarios for 2023".
It will be hosted by the Deputy Head of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, and a certain lady who heads the British Royal Institute for United Services, whose name is Karin von Hippel.
It is they who will become the main ones responsible for Russia at the World Economic Forum in Davos, which is more dead than alive.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.