- The Arctic is dialogue territory. Saint Petersburg held the Arctic Forum, which was attended by the representatives from 52 countries. Bear in mind that geographically-speaking, there are only eight Arctic countries. But the potential of the region is far too great.
The American journalist that moderated the plenary session, during which the leaders of Russia, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, and Norway held a speech tried to turn the arctic dialogue into an Arctic quarrel. But he failed. The ice is melting not just in the Arctic but in international relations as well.
- Still, the dialogue was interesting and even spectacular at times. Something's indeed happening. The countries that have been in the vanguard of anti-Russian rhetoric are suddenly acknowledging the importance of dialogue.
Vladimir Putin: "Russia’s future only depends on us. We're totally confident".
- Wait. Can somebody help us? Ah, never mind.
- Friends.
- Yes, goodbye.
Even those who had been avoiding dialogue tried to find a common language this time.
"Thank you for inviting me here".
The Swedish prime minister, who re-instated conscription two years ago, partially due to some "Russian threat" And now, he comes to Russia.
- It's a very important event.
- It's very well timed.
- Oh, hey!
The hosts of the summit tried to ensure a comfortable temperature at the bilateral meetings. However, someone got chilly at 73°F.
- Bless you.
- Bless you.
Before Putin's meeting with the president of Finland, the Russian ministers suddenly noticed that EU members always place an EU flag next to their national. Lavrov, Ushakov, and Oreshkin jokingly wondered how many flags could Russia possibly bring.
- A lot of flags: the EAEC, the SCO, etc.
- Right, if we brought all of them. The line of flags would reach the door.
- What if we also bring the flags of our republics and constituent territories?
- We'd have to take their flags away to free up some space.
- That's the way Chicherin used to do things.
- You'd have to decide which one you want.
Chicherin, referenced by Ivanov, was the first Soviet Foreign Minister. However, the ministers had to interrupt their history lesson. The meeting of the presidents began. The Finnish delegation seemed to be too shy to come in; Putin invited them with a gesture. Both commodity revenue and the flow of tourists between Russia and Finland have been growing.
Sauli Niinistö, President of Finland: "I hope that Finnish tourists behave here".
Vladimir Putin: "They're all right. They never forget to eat something with their drinks".
The meeting went great. Niinistö was in a hurry. The Arctic Forum was about to begin. The temperature in the Arctic is rising faster than in any other spot on the planet.
Vladimir Putin: “Four times faster. Can you imagine that?”
The Northern Sea Route might operate all year round. Russia has already increased its capacity.
Vladimir Putin: "By three times, I'd like to stress that. That's three times bigger than the Soviet record".
Russia encourages other Arctic nations to engage in mutually beneficial cooperation. Putin is sitting next to the leaders of Norway and Sweden, countries that have recently been in the vanguard both in terms of anti-Russian statements and actions against Russia. And yet, they've come to Saint Petersburg.
John Fraher, moderator: "Is this a sign that you no longer care about Crimea and the other issues that led to the confrontation?"
Stefan Löfven, Prime Minister of Sweden: "Russia is a very important country in the region. We want to have decent relations but we don't give up the things we believe in and view differently".
A sharp contrast compared to what we saw recently. Sweden was escalating the anti-Russian hysteria when even some bubbles in local waters were treated as traces of Russian submarines. The same was happening in Norway. The alleged "Russian threat" was promoted there so much that advertisers began exploiting it: Russians will come and take everything you haven't nailed down.
- I like that fridge.
- We heard the news that two Russian bombers flew over the territory of Norway.
Vladimir Putin: "Our military aircraft don't fly over the territory of Norway. No, they've never been there. And I hope they won't".
"I don't have any comments".
The Prime Minister of Norway kept telling our crew that she didn't have comments. However, she briefly replied to a question about why she wanted to meet with Putin.
Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway: "I don't have any comments. We'll talk to Putin later. I believe there's good friendship between our states that we must further develop".
The Prime Minister was accompanied by a blonde guard. She carefully studied everyone at her boss' meeting with Putin and didn't flinch when the situation at the meeting got out of control. A Norwegian journalist suddenly began asking one question after another. According to protocol, one may not do that at meetings between leaders. And yet Putin didn't say something like "No comment" but began answering the questions.
- Russia is accusing a citizen of Norway of espionage. What can be done to resolve this issue?
Vladimir Putin: "We must wait for the legal proceedings. Like in any other country, the court will determine the punishment and whether the person is guilty at all".
- Are you ready to pardon him?
Vladimir Putin: "One can only pardon a convict. And he hasn't been convicted yet".
Meanwhile, the Norwegian Prime Minister was browsing through her notepad. After the bilateral meeting, the journalist was seen calling his agency. In the end, he called Putin's response reasonable and agreed that we must first wait for the court's verdict.
Jan Espen Kruse, NRK reporter: Only after that can the president technically do something about it. So it's pretty reasonable.
- Why did you ask the question if you realize that it wasn't the right time to ask the president that?
- Because it's the most relevant issue in the relationship between Norway and Russia right now.
The summit's other bilateral meetings went without incident except for amusing ones. For some reason, Oreshkin's chair had two nameplates. Ivanov jokingly said that there was some scheming.
"You have two nameplates. Is that some scheme of yours?"
The Swedish prime minister's interpreter was in such a hurry to greet everyone that he accidentally forgot to greet Putin. And Putin's interpreter reformulated his words about Swedish investments in Russia.
Vladimir Putin: "We've received $5 billion in investments from our Swedish friends. I said friends, not partners. What a rascal!"
But the main thing is that the economic relations between the two countries are on the rise.
Sauli Niinistö: "Our relations are decent, as much as they can be in the current situation. The sanctions are still there and we still have questions regarding the Minsk Agreements. But as the president of Finland, I'm trying to improve our relations".
A Russian samovar and self-heating teapots. If there's a chill in relations with some countries, hot tea will melt the hearts of their leaders. Putin, who arrived here first, thanked the musicians for their work. He then proceeded to the panoramic window and studied the city view. Soon, the Norwegian prime minister arrived, followed by the other leaders along with foreign ministers. In Norway, both the Minister and PM are women. In the end, while her bosses were enjoying champagne, their assistant stood aside with multiple bags in her hands.
Decorations made of ice. There's an ice sculpture in the middle of the table where the leaders of Russia, Finland, Norway, and Sweden will have their dinner. The journalists didn't get to see the dinner. But one can easily imagine, say, that the president of Iceland was making toasts in Russian. He used to study it and was actively showing his skills at the summit.
Guðni Thorlacius Johannesson, President of Iceland: "Having 100 friends is better than having 100 rubles. We have the same saying in Iceland".
During his entire visit to Saint Petersburg and even at his meeting with Putin, the president of Iceland was wearing bracelets.
Guðni Thorlacius Johannesson: "You live now or today".
Practically all of the leaders were talking about moving forward. Despite the attempts of the moderator from the American Bloomberg to pit the delegates against each other by talking about the Ukrainian crisis, the replies were rather moderate. Putin only mentioned the illegality of the sanctions.
Vladimir Putin: "For some reason, nobody imposes sanctions for interfering in the domestic affairs of other countries, for disrupting internal political life, or for destabilizing entire states. Nobody imposes sanctions against those who reduce countries to a position where they are compelled to take certain measures to protect their interests. Let’s just return to the observance of the basic rules of international law".
- How long are these sanctions going to last? Is this Russia’s future?
Vladimir Putin: "Russia’s future does not depend on sanctions. Russia’s future only depends on us".
We've recently received information about the current sentiments in the U.S. Senate.
- It's tired of anti-Russian initiatives. There's been information about the Senate being fed up.
Yuri Ushakov, Presidential Aide: "It's about time they got tired. They have enough things to do. They have a box full of issues to resolve".
Alexander Novak, Minister of Energy: "The entire world is tired of sanctions. Sanctions are being erratically imposed against various countries".
However, it's clear that the current American administration is basically a hostage of the domestic political situation in the U.S.
Vladimir Putin: "The groups that are attacking the duly elected president are challenging the choice made by the American people. They're trying to nullify the result. That's a crisis of the political system. We've never seen anything like that in U.S. history before. On the contrary, the rift is widening. They put their group or party interests above national interests. That's what happened".
However, Mueller's seemingly sensational investigation dug up nothing in the end. Putin was asked: "Trump once invited you to Washington. Will you go?" Putin responded with a quote from a book by Ilf and Petrov.
Vladimir Putin: "Come visit us, my old mama will be very happy. But he didn't leave his address. That's that. The time must be ripe. We said from the very start that this notorious commission of Mr. Mueller will not find anything because nobody knows this better than us. Russia didn't interfere in any elections in the United States. This is sheer nonsense designed exclusively for domestic consumption".
Putin shared the details of the Arctic Forum with the Russian Security Council, which held an off-site session in St. Petersburg. Later, they went on a tour to the restored Church of Christ's Resurrection in Tsarskoye Selo. It now looks exactly like it did 300 years ago. 100 professional gilders returned the angels statues to their past splendor. Francesco Rastrelli's masterpiece has basically been reborn. Soon, the church will open to crowds of tourists.
After the summit, we're likely to get more tourists from the countries whose governments used to talk about scary Russia before showing that there's nothing scary about it.
- As far as I see, they'll have to face the new reality and pay the tourist tax in Saint Petersburg. At the meeting with Mr. Belov Putin supported the idea that Saint Petersburg needs money to restore the historic buildings. So they'll have to pay around 100 rubles ($1.5). But why the Arctic? Why did the Arctic become so important all of a sudden? We've explained to our audience in detail that due to the ice melting so fast and the annual temperature changing so quickly, four times faster than on the rest of the planet, as it was mentioned in our report, the Arctic region is opening new economic opportunities.
- One-third of Earth's gas reserves are there.
- We got lucky again since the largest gas reserves are located on our shelf. So yeah, many countries are now interested in this region. It won't be a surprise if the U.S. tries to flex its muscles there. But if there's one thing we're used to, it's saber-rattling muscle-flexing.
