Kommersant (Moscow) - June 13, 2006

Last week, another international business conference of RosBusinessConsulting (RBC), this time concerned with the upcoming St. Petersburg G8 summit, passed off in Stockholm. Organizers suggested that by day conference participants discuss new business opportunities, and nights be given over to the cultural program. The short hours of darkness did not prevent Yevgeniya Milova from observing her fellow countrymen.

RBC is committed to holding travel conferences twice a year, and this one became the thirteenth. "It's only yesterday that we survived 06/06/06," TNK-BP Vice President Vladimir Ruga said on board a plane bound for Stockholm, "Really, can we now be troubled by such trifles?" As the two-hour flight was drawing to its close, Mr. Ruga in tandem with General Director of Otkritie Brokerage House Badri Gobechia acted as stewards with white napkins draped over their arms (treating passengers to alcoholic beverages), which proves little indeed could trouble him.

At the airport, conference participants were greeted by RBC's General Director Yury Rovensky waving a Swedish flag. As a matter of fact, Mr. Rovensky is in the habit of vesting himself in the national costume of the country hosting the conference, yet this time he overlooked the tradition. "Well, you see, Sweden is that sort of country, you either wear horns on you head, or a propeller on your back," Mr. Rovensky said in excuse, "and I am not really ready to do either.

At dinner served in the 'Spegelsalen' (the Mirror Hall) in the Grand Hotel where Nobel Prize winners are usually assembled after the awards ceremony, all participants were mustered. Oleg Vyugin, Head of the Federal Financial Markets Service, Deputy Chairperson of Sberbank Bella Zlatkis who spent the whole evening in the company of designer Yelena Yarmak, President of Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange Alexander Potyomkin, State Duma deputy Sergei Glazyev, Andrei Nechayev, head of the Russian Financial Corporation, ex-Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, singer Anita Tsoi, Editor-in-Chief of Moscow Echo Radio Station Alexei Venediktov in a mob of young girl reporters, Sweden's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Russia of 1994-2004 Sven Hirdman and other guests were plainly glad to pick the menu to pieces. "Note," Mr. Venediktov addressed his neighbors at the table, "we are eating the same things as the first Nobel prizewinners in 1901 did." "An exceptionally nutritious dinner indeed," Mr. Potyomkin concluded happily. "Why, Reyman (Minister of Information Technology and Communications Leonid Reyman - Kommersant) has not come, has he?" General Director of Metropol Asset Management Mechislav Sheshelovsky inquired. "It's out of the question, he is virtually unavailable until the G8 summit," Mr. Venediktov said jokingly, "I wish you could see his schedule!"

Boris Nemtsov, Aide to the Ukrainian President, skipped the dinner. It became clear as the conference unfolded that Mr. Nemtsov escaped any events save official ones, and even at the reception at the Russian Embassy to mark the Day of Russia he spent no more than 10 minutes, trying to be inconspicuous. Most often, one could meet Mr. Nemtsov on the terrace of a city cafe in company with Nikita Belykh, head of the SPS Political Council, and Mr. Nechayev, or having dinner with Mr. Glazyev, boasting over their number of children. Beaten by super-dad Glazyev with seven children, Mr. Nemtsov, who has four offspring, retired altogether from curious eyes, apparently to set a new record.

On Friday, an official reception on behalf of Russia's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Sweden Alexander Kadakin was given to mark the Day of Russia. Mr. Kadakin had originally planned to entertain immediately on June 12. But later he must have guessed that the assembly would be more impressive if supported by RBC. "And then, how else could he have talked Anita (signer Anita Tsoi - Kommersant) into giving a concert at his reception?" lawyer Paver Astakhov assured everyone around. Best positioned for Ms Tsoi's performance was Tatiana Paramonova, Deputy Chairperson of the Bank of Russia. Around Ms Paramonova, financiers were clustered, while the remaining men were scattered around the Embassy. In point of fact, Ms Tsoi's concert was worth listening to if only because she closed it with Russia's national anthem. Half an hour earlier, when the Swedish and Russian anthems were played, Russians either kept silent by force of habit, or recollected the lyrics of the Soviet anthem version. Kadakin frowned and blushed looking at the mess.

From the Embassy, conference participants were taken to the Ice Bar resembling a huge freezer, inside which clients cautiously dressed in warm hooded cloaks and gloves are let in for 20 minutes, and given vodka in ice glasses. "What a nuisance!" vexed Mr. Astakhov, "A bar and a sobering center in one! What's the point, I wonder?" Ms Tsoi agreed with him. "Tanya," she told restaurateur Tatiana Kurbatskaya who joined the conference participants "never do such a thing in Moscow! Or at least with strip-tease." Ms Kurbatskaya, standing sandaled among the icy walls (the bar has no felt boots to offer) nodded: "This place is only fit for rejuvenating procedures." Not nearly everybody survived the ordeal of 20 minutes, and ladies and gentlemen withdrew to thaw in the Grand Hotel lobby.

Early on Saturday (the conference, to everybody's relief, closed a day earlier) those who wished to went fishing, where, a peculiar national feature, they had to set free all the fish they had caught after having taken a picture with them. "I gather, any fish here must be smarter than cover girls," Mr. Glazyev noted with a fishing rod in his hands. However, it was not he but Mr. Astakhov who fished out a pike weighing 6 kilos, which turned out to be of well advanced years as it failed to wait until it was free. The fishermen photographed the pike to death. The victim of photography was commemorated in the evening with Martell brandy and an acoustic concert by the Grimm Brothers band. The finale ended far into the night in the Grand Hotel lobby with a chorus of participants singing a Russian folk song.