ST. PETERSBURG, May 22 (RIA Novosti) – Expecting the relations between Russia and the West to normalize themselves is illogical, instead both political and economic dialogue should be resumed, the president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs told reporters Thursday.
“I believe that drifting as far apart as possible to wait until the situation normalizes on its own is not a way out. In order to normalize it, we should meet more often,” Alexander Shokhin said on the sidelines of St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), stressing that “there should be mutual interest in resuming the dialogue, both political and economic.”
Shokhin said that the SPIEF forum creates a universal platform where “representatives of all countries, representatives of global companies with various national affiliations, have the opportunity to express their position on the global agenda.”
The official signal of the crumbling of relations between Russia and the West came when G7 leaders on March 24 on the sidelines of the nuclear security summit in The Hague suspended the work of the G8 and refused to participate in the G8 meeting in Sochi, scheduled for early June, over Russia's policy regarding Ukraine and Crimea.
SPIEF 2014 convened on Thursday unaffected by the strained relations with the West.
