Putin faces Ukrainian drone threat and stagnating economy at ‘Russian Davos’

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Russian President Vladimir Putin said he saw no reason to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a day after his Ukrainian counterpart called for face-to-face talks.

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Speaking at a flagship annual economic forum in St. Petersburg two days after Ukrainian drone strikes rocked the host city, Putin said he was grateful to President Donald Trump for his efforts to end the war but insisted there was still “work to do.”

Zelenskyy, who has rarely addressed Putin directly, taunted the Russian leader about his age and the lack of progress in the war in an open letter Thursday. Russians, he said, were growing weary of the war, which he called Putin’s “personal choice” and “a war without real cause.”

Putin said he saw “no point in meeting” Zelenskyy.

“First, let experts work, work something out, and then we can meet to sign things,” he said, according to a translation provided by the forum’s organizers.

Trump said Thursday it “would be great” if Putin and Zelenskyy meet, though both warring sides acknowledge the U.S. focus has shifted to the Middle East since the war with Iran.

Addressing Zelenskyy’s suggestion that age was “beginning to take its toll” on the Russian leader, Putin said “the most important thing is whether you are capable of functioning properly, doing your job properly.” Some of his colleagues and other political figures were older than him, he added.

As the forum took place, France announced the country’s President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz would hold talks with Zelenskyy in London on Sunday.

During an earlier address to the crowd of diplomats and businesspeople, Putin did not mention the war and instead showcased his country’s economy and encouraged foreign investment, praising the BRICS geopolitical coalition of non-Western countries.

“The paradigm is shifting,” he told attendees at a plenary session, according to a translation provided by organizers. The alliance that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa had already overtaken the Group of Seven or G7, made up of the world’s largest economies, Putin said.

The G8 became the G7 in 2014 when Russia was expelled after annexing Crimea in Ukraine.

Putin was joined on stage by the Presidents of Uzbekistan and Tanzania, Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Samia Suluhu Hassan, China’s Vice President Han Zheng, along with a moderator, the journalist Geeta Mohan.

If Putin had hoped to minimize the impact of the four-year-old war with Ukraine at this year’s event, Wednesday’s attack likely ended those hopes.

An oil terminal was set ablaze, flights at the city’s airport were delayed or diverted, and authorities cut cellphone internet service in a bid to prevent further drone strikes.

Putin’s speech also comes at a time when Russia’s $3 trillion economy appears to be stagnating.

As the initial boost from massive military spending fizzles, his government has raised taxes and increased domestic borrowing to try and keep its budget deficit under control.

Putin admitted in his speech to the event often styled as “Putin’s Davos” that the country’s deficit might increase this year, but he said that “inflation has slowed down significantly, and it keeps going down.” He added that he expected inflation to be around 5.2% this year.

Ahead of his speech, Putin vowed to strengthen his country’s air defenses to counter the long-range Ukrainian attacks. “To our regret, some of them break through,” he said of the drones. “Russia has an air defense system, we need to improve it, strengthen it, and we will do that.”

Speaking to a small group of foreign media editors on the sidelines of the forum on Thursday, Putin said that Russia would defeat Ukraine on the battlefield if necessary, but was ready to end the war via diplomacy.

“We ‌are certainly prepared and willing to reach an agreement with Ukraine through peaceful means,” he said, adding that Russia agreed to compromises agreed to with Trump at their August summit in Anchorage, Alaska.

He did not specify what those compromises were but said Ukraine should also agree with them.

Russia, he added, was either in full or majority control of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions, which the Kremlin annexed in September 2022 after votes that most Western countries rejected as illegal land grabs. He did not mention the Kherson region which was also annexed at the time.

“Naturally, under these circumstances, the Ukrainian side would like us to halt the advance. But rather than stopping that, it would be better to bring the war to an end,” he said.

With battlefield progress stalled, Moscow and Kyiv have been locked in an escalating exchange of aerial attacks.

Organizers say more than 24,000 people from around the world were attending this year’s event in Putin’s hometown, though Western officials and business leaders have largely stayed away since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

This year, there is a small American delegation, the first official U.S. presence in years. It’s led by Rodney Mims Cook Jr., head of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the man in charge of overseeing Trump’s controversial White House ballroom extension.

Ahead of the forum, Cook, who spoke at a session on U.S.-Russian cultural dialogue, told state news agency Tass that he was representing his country as a minister of culture and as a Christian, not as a politician.

Far-right influencer Candace Owens was also in attendance, along with movie star Steven Seagal.

U.S. ally Saudi Arabia, which is a special guest this year, also sent a large and high-level business delegation while the presidents of Uzbekistan and Tanzania and China’s vice president also attended.

Senior officials from Iran and other countries also attended.

Keir Simmons and Natasha Lebedeva reported from St. Petersburg, and Henry Austin from London.