U.S. delegation to attend SPIEF after long break - Kremlin aide

MOSCOW. June 2 (Interfax) - An official delegation from the United States will attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) for the first time in nearly a decade, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov told a briefing ahead of the SPIEF on Tuesday.

"One could say that an official U.S. delegation led by the chair of the U.S. administration's Commission of Fine Arts, Rodney Cook, will arrive for the first time in several years to participate in the forum. I would say Americans have been absent at this level since around 2017-2018," Ushakov said.

Cook will speak at the forum's Russia-U.S.: Dialogue of Cultures session, alongside other speakers, including Valery Gergiev, the director of the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky theaters, and Mikhail Piotrovsky, the general director of the Hermitage museum, Ushakov said.

"Naturally, the U.S. representatives will chat with our official representatives, officials and art figures, and a discussion is expected of numerous issues on the U.S.-Russian cultural agenda," Ushakov said.