Amid war, Putin looks east from Russia’s window to Europe

Cut off from the West, Russia is pitching its $2 trillion economy to giants such as China and Saudi Arabia and longer-term prospects such as Zimbabwe and Afghanistan at its premier investment forum in St. Petersburg, which was founded by the tsars as a window to Europe.

The war in Ukraine has led to the biggest upheaval in Russia’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and Western sanctions have forced a once-in-a-century revolution in Russia’s economic relations.

Since Peter the Great laid the foundations of the modern Russian state and made St. Petersburg the capital in the early 18th Century, Russia’s rulers have looked to the West as a source of technology, investment and ideas.