{"id":160257,"date":"2015-06-20T16:54:19","date_gmt":"2015-06-20T16:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=160257"},"modified":"2015-06-20T16:54:19","modified_gmt":"2015-06-20T16:54:19","slug":"tony-blair-attends-russian-economic-forum-days-receiving-ukrainian-job-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/tony-blair-attends-russian-economic-forum-days-receiving-ukrainian-job-offer\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Blair attends Russian economic forum, days after receiving Ukrainian job offer"},"content":{"rendered":"

(RT<\/a>) –\u00a0Tony Blair appeared at the St Petersburg Economic Forum in Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s hometown on Friday, where the former UK prime minister advised business leaders on ways they could improve their performance.<\/p>\n

His appearance on the
\npanel came just hours after he was offered a job by the Ukrainian
\ngovernment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Blair advised Russian businessmen on how they could learn from
\nhis delivery unit, which he initially rolled out in Downing
\nStreet to help speed up hospital reforms. He did not touch on the
\neconomic impact of Western sanctions on Russia.<\/p>\n

The St Petersburg International Economic Forum, designed to
\nmirror the World Economic Forum, has been boycotted by some
\nWestern companies in recent years, who have taken their lead from
\nthe UK and US governments.<\/p>\n

The former PM addressed Russian and foreign business leaders and
\ninvestors alongside Sberbank CEO Herman Gref. Russia\u2019s biggest
\nbank has suffered losses following the imposition of Western
\nsanctions.<\/p>\n

Blair\u2019s appearance, in a session called \u201cCrisis Mitigation
\nPolicies: The Need for Government Reform,<\/em>\u201d came just hours
\nafter Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced he had
\noffered the former UK prime minister a role on his advisory
\ncommittee.<\/p>\n

Poroshenko said Thursday that Blair was a \u201ctrue friend of
\nUkraine<\/em>,\u201d saying he had \u201cexpressed firm support for
\nUkraine, its independence, sovereignty and territorial
\nintegrity.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe British politician emphasized that the world community
\nhad a great desire to support Ukraine and asked the president
\nwhat practical international assistance was necessary for
\nUkraine,\u201d<\/em> an official statement read.<\/p>\n

\u201cPetro Poroshenko invited Tony Blair to share his experience
\nof public administration within the Advisory International
\nCouncil of Reforms under the President of Ukraine.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Blair\u2019s extensive network of business interests now includes an
\noil firm in Saudi Arabia, American bank JP Morgan Chase, and
\nvarious Chinese clients.<\/p>\n

The former PM\u2019s spokesperson said: \u201cMr Blair participated on
\na panel talking about the need for government reform.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe discussed leading reform programs and improving the
\ndelivery of public services, having established the Delivery Unit
\nwhile Prime Minister and worked on the issue of governance since
\nleaving office. He received no fee.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

On his business in Ukraine, the spokesman added: \u201cPresident
\n[Poroshenko] asked him to join his reform council yesterday on a
\nvoluntary basis, but no decisions have been made at this
\nstage.\u201d<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(RT) –\u00a0Tony Blair appeared at the St Petersburg Economic Forum in Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s hometown on Friday, where the former UK prime minister advised business leaders on ways they could improve their performance. His appearance on the panel came just hours after he was offered a job by the Ukrainian government. Blair advised Russian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":160348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,18,1615],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-160257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-latest-news","9":"category-uk-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}