Putin and his men steal show at Russia business forum

By Michael Stott - Analysis

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Russia's top showcase for international investors was dominated by one man who didn't even come: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

President Dmitry Medvedev made the keynote address at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum but participants later struggled to recall words from a speech which contained little new and was briefly interrupted by a microphone failure.

Instead, investors talked about how Medvedev's powerful patron Putin had swooped the day before the Forum on a crisis- hit town 270 km away to visit hungry unpaid workers and publicly humiliate a top oligarch on television for failing to help them.

Putin, playing an "action man" role which pleases the Russian public, won cheers from the workers in Pikalyovo in the region surrounding St Petersburg for vowing to restart their factories.

He compared the three plant owners including Oleg Deripaska, once Russia's richest man, to cockroaches and accused them of greed. He then threw a pen on his table and ordered Deripaska to walk up and sign an agreement on raw material supplies.

Medvedev meanwhile, repeated to the Forum the proposals he made last year on using the Russian ruble as a reserve currency and making Moscow an international financial center. He added a desire to develop Russia's middle class and a historical comparison on the severity of corruption in the 18th century.

"It was a very clear demonstration of who is really in charge in Russia," one senior diplomat said afterwards. "Medvedev is up in the clouds and Putin is running the show."

In Russia's unusual political configuration, where Medvedev and Putin share power in what they term a "tandem," observers are watching closely for signals on where policy is heading and which politicians are given most prominence.

Putin did not attend the Forum.

The official explanation was that it was a presidential, rather than a prime ministerial event -- but the premier's key lieutenant, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, was given top billing after Medvedev.

OIL MARKETS REFORM

Sechin, often named by ambassadors as the leader of the hardline faction in the government favoring state intervention and nationalism, made a key speech to a panel of global oil chief executives arguing for reform of world oil markets.

"Sechin stole the thunder from Medvedev and I wonder if Putin didn't send him,," one Western analyst commented.

Last year, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov was the Russian government star of the Forum, promising foreign investors that Moscow would respect their property rights and cut the state's role in the economy.

This time Shuvalov gave no big presentations and only chaired a low-profile panel. "Shuvalov made lots of promises to investors last year," a government source said. "He knew if he came back to speak this year, they would ask him what happened."