The US representative spoke about Trump's permission to visit the SPIEF

Rodney Mims Cook Jr., Chairman of the American Commission on Fine Arts, founder and president of the National Monuments Fund of the United States, said on June 3 that he had received permission to come to Russia and attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) not only from the State Department, but also from President Donald Trump.

"I was invited to attend the economic forum, and our president and the U.S. State Department allowed me to come. <...> I informed my leadership, that is, the President of the United States, that I had received such an offer, and also said that our State Department agreed that now was a good time for me to come here (to St. Petersburg. — Ed.)," he is quoted as saying by TASS.

Cook added that when visiting the center, he felt a strong cultural connection between the two countries. He explained this with similar religious values. According to him, this can help unite people in the modern world.

Contract time: deals worth 6.5 trillion may be concluded at SPIEF 2026

The amount will be comparable to last year's amount against the background of high rates — it is the issues of business growth that will become the main topics of discussion.

On May 22, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov explained what the phrase "spirit of Anchorage" means to Russia. So, it means the trusting atmosphere that arose between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Donald Trump during the summit in Alaska.

A few days earlier, the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation had admitted that the establishment of Russian-American relations was not easy and was accompanied by emerging problems. On March 5, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pointed to the gradual eroding of the "Anchorage spirit" in Russian-American dialogues.