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Putin meeting with foreign businesses at SPIEF, contacts not made public — Kremlin

According to Dmitry Peskov, the decision to refrain from announcements is made to to protect the representatives of foreign business from "anarchy" they are facing in their countries

ST. PETERSBURG, June 20. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin is having meetings with representatives of foreign business on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), though contacts are not made public to protect entrepreneurs from sanctions, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a briefing.

"The president is having contacts with foreign businessmen on the sidelines of the forum. In particular, yesterday [meetings] took place, we simply don’t announce them to protect those representatives [of foreign business] from crazy anarchy they are facing in their countries," he said when answering a question asked by TASS on why Putin met foreign business representatives at previous forums in St. Petersburg while this year there is no such a meeting.

Asked whether the format of such meetings has reached its limits, or considering secondary sanctions it is necessary to be cautious and not let anyone down, Peskov said: "The latter, of course."

"You know that in relation to those our partners who continue to work here, there is a very aggressive environment in their countries. And in order to minimize all those risks, we simply do not disclose [foreign business representatives in Russia]," he said.