Russian President Vladimir Putin is grateful to US businessmen for their participation in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum against the backdrop of the continuing slump in Russian-US relations.

“I would like to thank all Russian and US organizers, I would like to thank our American friends for coming to today’s event,” Putin said in his opening remarks at the SPIEF-2017 panel session Russia-US Business Dialog on Friday.

The Russian leader recalled that Russia and the United States “as influential world powers maintain a dialog within the framework of different formats – in the Group of 20, in the APEC and other organizations and interact on key global and regional issues.”

“There is no chance of getting away from it all, but it is very good, thank God, that this process is continuing,” Putin said.