Russia, Ukraine and the emergence of a new global management regime (Pt 2)

The deep Russian connections with Klaus Schwab, Henry Kissinger and WEF

WEF chairman Klaus Schwab has on several occasions praised the close cooperation with the Russian government.

It has always been important for me that Russian representatives take part in our events in Davos. This has always been of particular importance to me. (Klaus Schwab)

Klaus Schwab and Vladimir Putin first met in 1992 during Putin's tenure as deputy mayor and head of the Committee on External Relations in St. Petersburg. As such, he had responsibility for international relations and foreign investment, which can be seen as a reason for the meeting. This is how WEF writes about the meeting in their historical book of their achievements A Partner in Shaping History (1971-2020):

At a brainstorming lunch, three young men who would rise to prominence within the next decade were present: Alexei Kudrin, Deputy Chairman of St Petersburg’s Committee for Economic Development and now Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation; Alexei Miller, Head of Department of the city’s External Affairs Committee and now Chairman of Gazprom, Russia’s largest company; and Vladimir Putin, Deputy Mayor of St Petersburg and Chairman of the External Affairs Committee, who would succeed Boris Yeltsin in 2000 as president of the Russian  Federation and then become prime minister in 2008.

The bonds that formed were close and would develop over the years. Among others, Schwab named Vladimir Putin as one of his Young Global Leaders during a conversation with trilateralist and WEF colleague David Gergen at Harvard in 2017.

Putin has also, since the 1990s, developed a close friendship with Klaus Schwab's mentor Henry Kissinger. They have both expressed admiration for each other. For his efforts, Kissinger was awarded the title "Honorary Professor of the Diplomatic Academy of Russia" in 2013. Three years later, Kissinger expressed his goal with US-Russian relations:

The long-term interests of both countries call for a world that transforms the contemporary turbulence and flux into a new equilibrium which is increasingly multi-polar and globalized.

This coincides with Brzezinski's vision. The centenarian Kissinger has also raised the opinion that Ukraine should cede territory in order to achieve peace with Russia. Later, however, he has said that it can come with the price of Ukraine becoming a member of NATO and being incorporated into the European sphere of interest.

To date, 67 Russians have completed the WEF leadership program. This includes names that have or had close contacts with the Russian presidential administration such as Anatoly Chubais (Putin's former envoy for climate issues and Agenda 2030), Armenian politician Ruben Vardanian (Sberbank), former deputy prime minister Arkady Dvorkovich, former G20 sherpa Ksenia Yudaeva ( deputy governor of the Russian central bank) and Putin's assistant Maxim Oreshkin (Rosneft). (Download WEF YGL list)