Russian Higher Arbitration Court chairman Anton Ivanov (third from right) and first deputy prime ministers Dmitry Medvedev (second from right) and Sergei Ivanov (right) at a concert in St. Petersburg on June 8, 2007.
Photo: Valery Levitin
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Professional Party Animals
// Economic Forum Nightlife Sees the Light of Day
The organizers of the 11th St. Petersburg Economic Forum paid particular attention to the leisure time of the forum's participants. The merrymaking, which was punctuated only occasionally by meetings, presentations, and the signing of agreements, began with an official reception at the Hermitage and a concert by the German rock group the Scorpions on Palace Square behind the museum and ended on with a no less official reception on the beach behind the Peter and Paul Fortress, where the Russian pop group Serebro performed. Between these two official receptions, the Estonian ship Viktoria, moored in St. Petersburg's port, was the setting for endless rounds of nighttime (and daytime) parties.
Only a hundred people were invited to the Hermitage for the festivities that opened the forum. The guests arrived on the side of the building overlooking the Neva River at an entrance marked "Soviet," and it really was no easier to get through there than it would had been to penetrate the Iron Curtain. The only people allowed to slip unmolested past the metal detectors and searching hands were St. Petersburg mayor Valentina Matvienko, Trade and Economic Development Minister German Gref, and first deputy prime ministers Dmitry Medvedev and Sergei Ivanov.
Once the weather and everybody's outfits had been commented upon, the guests set off on an excursion around the museum, during which they were all struck by the light-green wedding-gown style dress worn by the ballerina Anastasia Volochkova, as well as by the jeans sported by Messrs. Medvedev and Ivanov. Their retinue of bodyguards were similarly attired. Russian Deputy Chief of Staff Mikhail Kopeikin was looking at a display in the company of St. Petersburg Deputy Mayor Mikhail Osiyevsky, Russian Standard owner Rustam Tariko, and Russian Marketing Association president Alexander Braverman when Vladimir Yevtushenko, the chairman of the board of directors of Sistema, and the company's president Alexander Goncharuk ran by. Mr. Tariko inquired where they were going, but his question met with only empty air. The two men were already gone.
The excursion concluded where tourists usually begin their circuit of the museum. The director of the State Hermitage Museum, Mikhail Piotrovsky, took the opportunity to say a few words. After some short remarks welcoming the assembled guests "within these sacred walls," Mr. Piotrovsky handed the floor over to Mr. Gref. "I am very happy that our forum is turning out to be so international this year," Mr. Gref began sonorously, before suddenly adding, "and here, in this room, we also have such an international group: there, for example, is [Mariinsky Theater Director Valery] Gergiev, an Ossetian, and here are some Russians, and there's Valentina Matvienko, a Ukrainian…" "What?" – Ms. Matvienko was clearly taken aback. "I'm Russian!!!" Her indignation was fairly loud, and one of those in attendance tried to defuse the situation: "Yeah, and there's [Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography director Mikhail] Shvydkoi, he's from Kazakhstan." Mr. Gref, however, forged on as though he had heard nothing: "I invite everyone to the table, and then our program includes a Scorpions concert on Palace Square and Gustav Mahler at the Mariinsky Theater."
After dinner, during which Mr. Medvedev and Mr. Ivanov roped Mr. Gergiev and the lawyer Vitaly Korzun into a discussion of Sochi's Olympic prospects, everyone trooped out onto Palace Square, where Robin Gibb was already warming up his guitar. The spots in the first row were occupied by Ms. Matvienko, Northwest Federal Region presidential plenipotentiary Ilya Klebanov, Mr. Medvedev, Mr. Ivanov, and Mr. Gref. The two first deputy prime ministers spent the entire evening practically joined together at the hip, even going so far as to cross their legs in perfect synch, although Mr. Medvedev applauded twice as energetically as Mr. Ivanov. At the intermission, the lovers of classical music, headed by Ms. Matvienko and Mr. Gref, left for the Mariinsky Theater, but Mr. Medvedev and Mr. Ivanov stayed behind to listen to the Scorpions. One of the empty seats next to them was quickly claimed by the chairman of the Higher Arbitration Court of Russia, Anton Ivanov. Once the Scorpions had proven that a slow dance with a girl to the song "Wind of Change" was an unconditional reflex for post-Soviet Russians, the concert ended, and the most high-profile guests swanned off to relax.
The rest of the guests headed for the Viktoria for an open-air party thrown by Mirax Group CEO Sergei Polonsky. Among others, Krasnoyarsk regional governor Alexander Khloponin, his colleague from Tver Dmitry Zelenin, and Trubnoi Metallurgy Company chairman Dmitry Pumpyansky crammed into the uncomfortable ship to listen to the Russian rock groups Chicherina and Ottawan. However, when Federal Council deputy Igor Kamensky later took to the floor with unbounded enthusiasm to show off his singing talent by plowing through pop standards from the 1970s, the only ones left in the audience were Troika Dialog head Ruben Vardanian and Mr. Polonsky himself.
Thanks to the efforts of the company Barkly and its owner Leonid Kazints, the next day the denizens of the Viktoria were able to enjoy a fashionable breakfast: champagne and buckwheat bliny with red and black caviar, served to the accompaniment of a live jazz ensemble. All of this, of course, set a purely professional working tone for the day. At lunch, which was also provided by Barkly, Mr. Kazints, Nizhegorodsky regional governor Valery Shantsev, Transneft CEO Semyon Vainshtok, Norilsk Nickel vice president Vladimir Engelsberg, the lawyer Natalia Barshchevskaya, Russian Railways director of investments Igor Kolomeisky, and, of course, Mr. Polonsky, were treated to a presentation from the Russian School of Economics given by Russian presidential administration management head Arkady Dvorkovich, who ran off immediately afterwards to give a lecture at Lenexpo. He had hardly left when one of the guests told a funny story about the organizing committee of the Economic Forum: "Can you imagine, they sent a letter to the [presidential] administration with a request to send a photograph of Putin for his accreditation badge! So in the reply letter they got a picture: Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] in an armchair by the fire, with his dog Connie lying at his feet!"
Yesterday, after Mr. Putin emceed an awards ceremony for the "Global Energy" prize at Lenexpo, the ninth floor of the Viktoria played host to a special session of the "Chess Salon in Memory of Vladimir Dvorkovich." Usually during such sessions, the guests of Arkady and Mikhail Dvorkovich can take part in multi-board play with some famous grandmaster. This time, however, the role of the guest star was taken by deputy prime minister Alexander Zhukov, who pulled out wins on four boards, ended two games in a tie (one of which was against Arkady Dvorkovich), and lost one game. At the end of the tournament, Mr. Zhukov ran off, leaving MDM co-owner Sergei Popov to live down the deputy prime minister's loss. Meanwhile, the rest of the guests were rocking out with the group the Gipsy Kings so enthusiastically that Barkly CFO Natalia Slovesnikova managed to lure Mr. Shantsev onto the dance floor. An anonymous redheaded young lady in a short fluttery dress dragged Krokus president Aras Agalarov, Tekhnopromexport head Sergei Molozhavy, and deputy minister for culture and mass communications Dmitry Amunts out of their chairs and forced them to dance. Despite the fact that everyone was still planning to show up for work on the second day of the forum, the dancing continued until the electricity on the boat's dance floor finally ran out – around five o'clock in the morning. After that, some people headed for the bars onboard the ship, where rubles were not accepted under any circumstances: the euro was the currency of choice.
The final reception at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum was the traditional dinner hosted by Valentina Matvienko, which this year took place on the beach behind the Peter and Paul Fortress. Ms. Matvienko appeared among her guests in a black trouser suit – the lone splashes of color in her outfit were the lilac heels on her shoes. In her speech, she thanked her guests for their fruitful work and invited them all to a reception prepared by Moscow Oil and Gas Company president Shalva Chigirinsky on the St. Petersburg island of New Holland. Not a word about German Gref's nationality crossed her lips. Speaking after her, Mr. Gref also exhorted everyone to drop by New Holland. That evening, everyone had only kind words for each other. The kindest words, however, were reserved for Pulkovo Airport CEO Andrei Murov: approximately 120 private planes were jostling for position among the scheduled takeoffs from St. Petersburg's airport, and everyone was doing his or her charming best to bump their bids as high as possible up the list.
Yevgenia Milova
All the Article in Russian as of June 13, 2007
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