Top global investors gathered here Monday at the start of a World Economic Forum conference on Russia as anti-globalization protesters demonstrated their disapproval of the session amid high security.
As delegates met inside a luxury hotel near the Kremlin, police erected barricades along both sides of the main avenue outside to keep pedestrians and non-participants away from the venue of the meeting.
In a square near the hotel however around 50 people gathered behind police barricades to protest the meeting of the Geneva-based forum which represents the world's richest and most powerful business and political leaders.
"We're waiting for our friends from other parts of Europe to join us," said 21-year-old anti-globalization activist Stanislav Rogachov.
Around 1,500 extra police officers and interior ministry law enforcement agents were deployed on the streets around the venue of the forum and officials vowed to keep any demonstrations under tight control.
"There will be no violence here," said one police officer at a barricade checkpoint. "You can be sure of that."
Police arrested two elderly men who were "shouting anti-Semitic slogans" outside the hotel, Interfax news agency reported. There were however no reports of violence and protesters did not exceed more than about 50 people, police said.
The forum was to kick off with a address from Andrei Illarionov, Russia's special representative to the Group of Eight, which includes the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia, as well as representatives of the European Union.
President Vladimir Putin was scheduled to deliver the keynote address to the forum on Tuesday and a number of top Russian officials, including Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, were also taking part in the gathering.
Delegates from outside Russia included Jean Lemierre, president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Johannes Linn, a World Bank vice president and around 340 other economic, business and political figures from 28 countries.
"The Russia meeting takes place at a crystallizing moment," said Thierry Malleret, the World Economic Forum's director for Europe and central Asia.
"Following the terrorist attacks on 11 September, the relations between Russia, the United States and Europe are taking on a fundamentallly different nature.
"A whole new international order is emerging and Russia is playing a critical role in shaping it," he said.
Experts said they did not expect any major new deals to be announced at the forum meeting in Russia, which ends Tuesday, but they said the fact that the meeting was taking place here at all was a sign of the improving business climate in Russia.
"The mere fact that the prestigious forum is being held in Moscow is an important indicator of the significant improvements that have taken place in the Russian economy over the past few years," Alexei Moisseev of Renaissance Capital said.
Top international business leaders have pointed to a number of important political and economic reforms long sought by investors and approved by the Russian government only in the past several months.
Among them, they said, was a new corporate tax rate ceiling of 30 percent and a decision to adopt international accounting standards for Russian business that will make it easier for foreign investors to gauge their company's performance here.
Klaus Schwab, president of the World Economic Forum, said bringing top political leaders here together with the world's foremost investors would create a "multiplier effect" that would foster business development in Russia.
The World Economic Forum is funded by contributions from 1,000 of the world's leading corporations -- MOSCOW, (AFP)
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