New Delhi, June 6 -- On the final day of Russia's most important annual economic gathering, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stepped to the briefing podium and offered what sounded, by design, like the most unremarkable of declarations. Russia, he said, is open to cooperation and interaction with all countries.

no carve-outs for the West, no enumeration of conditions, no reference to the conflict in Ukraine. Yet the setting gave it weight. Peskov's remarks on Friday came as the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2026 wrapped up a four-day program that drew representatives from more than 130 countries to the ExpoForum convention center, an attendance figure that Moscow's officials have consistently cited as evidence of Russia's co...