The 2012 Davos Forum

With elections demanding the attention of both Medvedev and Putin at home, neither attended the 2012 World Economic Forum. This enabled members of the Russian delegation, such as Sberbank chief German Gref, and former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin to speak candidly about the political and economic situation facing Russia. Their concerns were echoed by other members from the various moderate factions of Russian elite, united in their concern that unless Putin were to make concerted efforts at enacting deep economic and political reforms, he would face large scale civil unrest and economic ruin.

After an unusually public spat over rising social and military spending, Kudrin was sacked by then-President Medvedev in late 2011. He attended Davos as a professor at St. Petersburg State University, and chaired a number of the Russian delegation's official events. In other words, Kudrin's fallout out with Medvedev did not appear to have hurt his standing with other members of the Russian and international business elite. In fact, he used the forum as yet another opportunity to call for increased plurality in Russian political life, but refused to comment on his prospects for becoming a major opposition figure.

At a breakfast hosted by Sberbank, German Gref led calls for reform, saying that “our model of administering the state is obsolete.” He conducted an on-the-spot poll of those attending the breakfast, including Kudrin, on the most pressing challenges facing Russia. The answers adhered to a simple rubric – corruption, excessive government involvement in the economy, and archaic political practices.

The 2013 Davos Forum

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev once again returned to the World Economic Forum in 2013 to assure the world that Russian political and economic development was continuing along a positive path. He dismissed concerns that his government was facing civil unrest and serious economic difficulties should they fail to institute serious systemic reforms. Medvedev also shocked Davos attendees when he told Bloomberg that “Gazprom may lose its monopoly on gas exports from Russia.”

Russian businessmen used the event to express their concerns with the Magnitsky affair. Specifically, they worried that their legitimate business dealings could get swept up in red tape resulting from the international response – the U.S. Magnitsky Act being the prime example. Many complained that the Kremlin's hard-line stance on Magnitsky was only making matters worse, but that no one wanted to bring up the matter directly to Putin.