now Russia is the most sanctioned country in the world and yet this year its economy is set to grow faster than all advanced economies according to the international monetary fund later today the Russian President Vladimir Putin is hosting an international economic Forum in St Petersburg our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg is in St Petersburg with more on what we can expect to hear from President Putin well I mean it's an international economic Forum so uh the economy is going to be top of the list we'll hear a lot about the economy and certainly the Russian authorities are trying to use this year's event this year's Forum to say look we know we're heavily sanctioned by the west but there are plenty of other regions and countries in the world ready to do business with Russia so you know I haven't seen this week many um CEOs from America or Europe but delegations from Asia from Africa from the Middle East from South America so I expect president Putin will make that point but apart from the economy there's going to be a lot I think about geopolitics um that's been bubbling away in the background in St Petersburg this week the war in Ukraine The Soaring tensions between Russia and the West in fact earlier this week in St Petersburg uh Vladimir Putin suggested that Russia is considering uh supplying uh Advanced conventional long-range missiles to others uh uh to carry out strikes against Western targets uh that would be Russia's response to uh NATO allies allowing Ukraine to use Western uh missiles uh to strike Russian territory Steve how is it then that Vladimir Putin is able to prop up his economy despite those sanctions how is he circumventing them yeah um With a Little Help from his friends first of all so country like India and China uh so for example Russia has redirected um its oil exports from Europe to India and China China's become actually a Lifeline really for for for the Russian economy but also Russia continues to um make a lot of money from its uh energy exports despite International sanctions trying to slash the amount of money that that Russia earns from for example oil exports a lot of money is pouring in and that is uh being spent on the military on the defense sector and that in turn is fueling um economic growth uh probably short-term economic growth because in the long term uh a war economy that we're seeing emerging in Russia is hardly sustainable and Steve Western Nations have been criticized uh there have been people saying that some of those loopholes need to be tightened in order for sanctions to have a real effect uh on Russia what are we talking about yeah that's true I mean for example um the oil price cap now this was a an idea that came up from the G7 Nations uh and EU leaders to cap the price uh that Russia can sell its oil around the world no more than $60 uh a barrel that was the idea but Russia's been able to circumvent that um and also other um designed to U stop um you know reduce the amount of of money Russia gets uh from trade with with various countries now recently the US Treasury suggested um introducing secondary sanctions on International Banks for example that are doing transactions uh with Moscow if that happens that will put pressure I think on the Russian economy uh and that is I think an area of concern for the Russian authorities right now and that was uh Steve Rosenberg with more on the economic Forum being held in Russia