Commenting on developments in the Middle East on Tuesday, Moskovsky Komsomolets concluded: "In global politics right now, massive changes are taking place in real time which will affect life in our country, either directly or indirectly." Vladimir Putin will be spending much of this week in St Petersburg where the city is hosting its annual International Economic Forum. The event was once dubbed "Russia's Davos", but the label doesn't really apply now. In recent years the chief executives of big Western companies have stayed away – especially since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Nonetheless, the organisers claim that this year representatives from more than 140 countries and territories will attend. Russian authorities will almost certainly use the event to try to demonstrate that attempts to isolate Russia over the war in Ukraine have failed. An economic forum it may be, but geopolitics is never far away. We'll be watching closely for any comments the Kremlin leader makes about the Middle East and about Ukraine.