All right, Alexander, let's discuss the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. And let's focus in on Putin's

interview with mainstream, big, big media reporters on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg Forum.

He said a lot of interesting things. What really

stood out for you as far as his comments? It was a Q&A type of session. Putin sitting at a table

and the reporters giving him questions. I don't know, maybe 10 reporters or so, including Reuters, was there as well.

So that was interesting. Anyway, what were your thoughts?

It was a very confident Putin, very relaxed Putin, in Gazprom headquarters, you know, huge building in St. Petersburg,

tallest building in Europe, I believe. But anyway, there he was.

Lacta. Lacta. Center, that's right Europe, I believe. But anyway, there he was.

Lachta.

Lachter Center, that's right.

It's a, very striking, very enormous.

Very impressive.

But anyway, there he was at a table.

It was all very, you know, intimate in some ways.

He's very relaxed, very confident, very pleased, I think, with the way things are going.

And by the way, he's had a whole slew of economic news again, which is going to put him in an even better news.

The World Bank is at the process of revising its figures and is saying that Russia has the fourth biggest economy in the world. There's been a lot of comment about this and some pushback, but I gather that that is now

actually a settled thing that the World Bank is indeed going to, is in the process of updating

its figures and is saying that. they're giving russia now a

6.45 trillion dollar economy significantly bigger than before what they were giving it before

bigger than japan's and they're also saying that 40% of the Russian economy is underreported.

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