[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2271050849-e1780933658316.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tLate last week, Rodney Mims Cook Jr., the chairman of the US Commission of Fine Arts, became the first US official to participate in St. Petersburg\u2019s so-called \u201cRussian Davos\u201d in nearly a decade, according to reports. <\/p>\n
\n\tThe St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is designed to attract foreign investment in Russia, but has seen a drop in attendance of high-profile Western leaders since Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn a stark reminder, Ukrainian drones struck oil and military targets on the outskirts of St Petersburg as the major, four-day forum prepared to open June 3, reported the BBC<\/em>. \u201cGiven such distinguished guests and the importance of the event itself, we couldn\u2019t ignore it \u2014 so we rushed off to St Petersburg,\u201d Denys Shtilierman, co-founder of the Ukrainian defense company Fire Point, ironically wrote on X.<\/p>\n \n\tEarlier, on June 2, Democratic Illinois Senator Dick Durbin asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to explain the presence of US officials at SPIEF. However, in response, Rubio said he \u201cwas not aware\u201d of their presence.<\/p>\n \n\tBut just a few days later, Cook led a US delegation to the forum, where he joined a Thursday roundtable discussion and then spoke during Friday\u2019s plenary session. \u201cYou have a beautiful hometown,\u201d Cook told Putin, according to Reuters<\/em>. \u201cI do give a good hello from your friend, President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThursday\u2019s roundtable titled \u201cRussia-USA: dialogue of cultures\u201d was moderated by Russian cultural envoy Mikhail Shvydkoy, who was also key in orchestrating Russia\u2019s participation in this year\u2019s Venice Biennale. Fellow participants also included the US actor Steven Seagal, whom the Russian Foreign Ministry appointed as a special envoy for Russian-American \u201chumanitarian relations\u201d in 2018. They were joined by other outspoken supporters of the Russian invasion of Ukraine who have been sanctioned by the EU, including the director of the State Hermitage Museum, Mikhail Piotrovsky, and Russian culture minister Olga Lyubimova, who called for the \u201cdepoliticization\u201d of culture during the meeting, according to the Art Newspaper<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tCook, who has been a key backer of President Trump\u2019s White House ballroom and triumphal arch, also discussed his long-held love and support for Russian arts and heritage. Many in attendance \u201chave been my personal friends for decades,\u201d he reportedly stated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/chairman-us-commission-fine-arts-st-petersburg-conference-1234788498\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2271050849-e1780933658316.jpg?w=1024″] Late last week, Rodney Mims Cook Jr., the chairman of the US Commission of Fine Arts, became the first US official to participate in St. Petersburg\u2019s so-called \u201cRussian Davos\u201d in nearly a decade, according to reports. The St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is designed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1979070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1979070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979070\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1979070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1979070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1979070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}