


"Russia for years came here to Davos to present itself in the way it believed it should show itself to the world," exhibition curator Bjorn Geldhof, told CNBC's Silvia Amaro. This year its walls wore photographs and a big screen showing Putin's atrocities.

Prominently located on the ski resort's main drag, Russian business and government leaders took meetings and downed vodka shots there in previous years. The week's most repeated story was that of how Ukrainian business leader and philanthropist Victor Pinchuk transformed the perennial "Russia House" into "Russian War Crimes House." One wonders whether Xi ever tried to convince Putin of what he told his January Davos audience: "History has proved time and again that confrontation does not solve problems, it only invites catastrophic consequences." "We need to discard Cold War mentality and seek peaceful coexistence and win-win outcomes," he said, just a matter of days before he signed a joint statement with Putin agreeing to a relationship " without limits." That, in turn, was a little more than a month before Putin launched his war. 17 when he spoke to a virtual WEF session. Not present was China's President Xi Jinping, who has used the Davos stage to preen as a champion for a better world, most recently on Jan. The WEF called for a "Marshall Plan" for the reconstruction of Ukraine, and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Davos crowd via video that it should use seized Russian assets to help accomplish that task. "In Davos, our solidarity is foremost with the people suffering from the atrocities of this war," said Klaus Schwab, the Forum's founder and executive chairman. That Davos for the first time took Russians off its invite list underscored that there are some crimes the global community must oppose. Even Davos' newest elites, the cryptocurrency crowd, are exploring ways to deploy aid more effectively and swiftly to Ukraine even as they lick their wounds from billions in losses from the Terra crypto scandal. Europe has responded with more collective purpose, and its taxpayers are funding weapons for a Ukraine fighting for shared freedoms. Russian President Vladimir Putin has jolted the collective West from its slumber. Yet there was another narrative on display in Davos as well. One of Europe's most murderous conflicts since World War II grinds on without resolution the global economy grinds toward recession with slowing growth and growing inflation and COVID with all its variants persists into its third year, with a particular pounding of China and related supply chains. That said, there's no doubt this year's prevailing theme was a collective gloom without ready solutions. Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
