For more than two decades the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) has been the go-to event for Russians and foreigners to meet, discuss business and begin investment partnerships in the world’s largest country. Now with Russia deemed a pariah state, Western companies and investors are steering clear, and have been replaced with businessmen and officials from the likes of India, the UAE and Brazil.

SPIEF 2023 will be almost unrecognisable compared to SPIEF 2021, the last forum to take place before Russia President Vladimir Putin's decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 2021 saw participation from senior Western businessmen, such as TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné, EY global vice chair Jay Nibbe and American Express chairman Barry Sheridan. The event was also attended by Western politicians, such as Swedish Minister of Foreign Trade Anna Hallberg, while panels were moderated by respected Western journalists such as Financial Times Moscow bureau chief Henry Foy.

This year's event will look very different. The event that once had attracted French President Emmanuel Macron and then German Chancellor Angela Merkel will instead see Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó as the highest-profile European official. Even leaders of Russia's closest non-European allies have declined to attend, including Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Among the other scheduled speakers are Nicaragua's Minister of Health, the UAE's Minister of Economy, the head of China's National Space Administration, and Russian pro-war propagandist Vladimir Solovyov.

The extensive line-up of anticipated panellists also includes the country's most powerful businessmen, such as Oleg Deripaska, Alexey Mordashov and Leonid Mikhelson. In 2022, numerous billionaires from Russia chose to abstain from the event, concerned that their participation could lead to associations with the invasion of Ukraine and result in them falling victim to sanctions. Now the majority have already been targeted.

In place of panels discussing the future of Moscow's relationship with the European Union and North America, the direction has shifted southwards. The programme of sessions at SPIEF 2023 will see Russian businessmen, officials and journalists sitting alongside counterparts from the Global South to discuss topics such as collaboration between BRICS countries in space, youth co-operation with Iran, and medical tourism between Russia and the Middle East. Other subjects that have been prevalent throughout the previous editions of SPIEF, such as new technology, international trade and climate change, will still be deliberated this year, but with a particular emphasis on the role of the developing world, the concept of multipolarity replacing US hegemony, and de-dollarisation. These discussions aim to promote the idea that Russia and its partners can challenge Washington and Brussels on the global stage.

The media makeup of the forum will also be significantly different from previous years, with the Kremlin prohibiting journalists from "unfriendly countries" such as the United Kingdom and the United States from attending.

The main event of SPIEF 2023 will be the plenary session, featuring a speech by Putin. The Russian President is expected to address the main topic of the forum, "Sovereign Development as the Basis of a Just World," with a focus on Russia's position globally and the transformation of the nation's economy to foster stronger partnerships within BRICS and the SCO.

On 7 June, Putin issued a welcome message to the Forum, wherein he stated that the events' "rich and substantive agenda" would encompass "the profound tectonic shifts that are gaining momentum today," such as "the ongoing formation of a multipolar world and efforts by most countries to secure political and economic independence."