Adrian Pabst is a lecturer in politics at the University of Kent, UK, and a visiting professor at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lille (Sciences Po).

As the annual St. Petersburg Economic Forum gets under way on Thursday June 16, discussions will almost certainly focus on Russia’s competitiveness. While the other BRIC countries of Brazil, India and China are seeing strong growth that is sustaining the global recovery, the Russian economy is currently characterized by a modest increase in national output and stagnating levels of productivity. What is urgently required is an overarching strategy by both government and the business community to boost Russia’s competitiveness and thus to translate its considerable – as yet unrealized – potential into greater prosperity.