MOSCOW, June 4. /TASS/. The Kremlin has not yet disclosed the name of the moderator of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum’s plenary session, where Russian President Vladimir Putin will speak and participate in a discussion.

"We will inform you closer to June 7," Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS, when asked whether it will be a Russian or foreign journalist.

The SPIEF plenary session will be held on Friday, June 7. Putin traditionally makes a speech there and then participates in the discussion, the course of which depends, among other things, on the moderator.

In different years, journalists from Russian or foreign media, usually specialists in international relations, were invited to act in this capacity. In 2023, the moderator was Dimitri Simes, the honorary president of the National Interest, a political scientist, historian and TV host.

One of the most notable moderators was political analyst and Newsweek editor Fareed Zakaria, who participated in the SPIEF in 2016. Also, SPIEF used the services of Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwaite (2018), NBC reporter Megyn Kelly (2017), and CBS and PBS anchor Charlie Rose. In recent years, Russian journalists - Sofiko Shevarnadze, Stanislav Natanzon, and Margarita Simonyan - moderated the discussion.