Davos Playbook: CEOs in Lycra — Geopolitics tops the agenda — Foodie tips

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WEATHER REPORT: Good morning from Davos, where temperatures are expected to reach a paltry 12°C, with showers throughout the day, turning to rain this evening.

Trending — athleisure on the Promenade: It’s not a sight you see often in Davos: top execs in skimpy lycra. But the lack of snow this time of year has lured committed runners out of their chalets and into the drizzle. A healthy portion of delegates were spotted skipping Monday breakfast meetings and jogging all over town in bright green, pink and blue outfits. Here’s more from the Wall Street Journal on this year’s wardrobe challenges.

Morning listen: For your run along the Promenade, catch up on all the action with POLITICO’s Davos Confidential podcast, which landed overnight.

Could we get both a winter and summer Davos next year? WEF insiders say that’s unlikely: they’re getting feedback that it’s a roughly 50/50 split among their strategic partners as to which is better. On the other hand, holding two major events in Davos would be a money-spinner, and there will be demand from this year’s May crowd.

**A message from SQM: As part of the campaign, SQM is committing to the goal of reducing emissions across all its activities in line with the Paris Agreement, with transparent action plans and robust short- and long-term targets, which they will report on annually. Read here.**

WHAT TO WATCH: The World Economic Forum is now in full swing, with most of the big-hitters in town. This morning will see keynotes by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg follows shortly after, while European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde will be speaking at a dinner with several European leaders and Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba later in the evening. We’ll also hear for the first time from the Biden administration at 8 p.m., when U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo speaks. (Though everybody knows the real action is taking place in Tokyo, where the U.S. president is attending a meeting of the Quad alliance.)

UKRAINE, and the economic and political consequences of Russia’s war, promise to again be the topic du jour, with panels on energy security and the food crisis running throughout the day.

POLAND is hitting the Davos crowd from all sides. President Andrzej Duda is among the panelists on this morning’s “Geopolitical Outlook” session, while Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is also due in town. Europe’s reformed bad boys are here to bask in newfound popularity over Warsaw’s support for Ukraine. Playbook couldn’t help but notice a glossy two-page spread featuring Poland in the FT.

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may have appeared on screen as he opened WEF on Monday, but he proved he’s a better communicator than most of the CEOs in town this week, overcoming a dodgy translation to win a standing ovation.

The speech: In a now familiar pattern, Zelenskyy adapted his message to his audience, appealing to businesses to pull out of Russia and urging them to open their check books for a Ukraine reconstruction program.

Telling it like it is: Zelenskyy didn’t pull any punches — he accused the West of costing “tens of thousands of lives” by not sanctioning Moscow earlier, and demanded all Russian banks be sanctioned.

Messages to CEOs in Davos: “Your brands should not be associated with war crimes,” and “our national economy has to remain operative.”

Speaking of business responsibility: Ukraine’s Digital Minister Mykhailo Fedorov also landed some big hits in an interview with POLITICO on Monday. He directly called out technology giants SAP and Cloudflare for continuing to operate in Russia, saying they are effectively enabling its war machine.

Naming and shaming: SAP, a German multinational that specializes in cloud services and database tech, is “still continuing to work in Russia and to pay taxes to help finance the Russian army,” Fedorov said, noting that lots of banks and banking activities use its products. He argued Cloudflare, a U.S.-based software company that helps make websites more secure, “continues to protect Russian websites” by staying in the country. “I don’t know who they are defending them from,” he added. Here’s the write-up.

Playbook wonders what Gwen Stefani will make of all this. The global superstar is headlining Cloudflare’s Wednesday night party in Davos, and she’s been known to enjoy oligarch hospitality in the past.

ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE: Nothing says Davos more than exorbitant hotel prices (€900 for a single bunk bed, anyone?) and rip-off house rentals (€30,000 for a few days in a three-bed apartment, or pay the mortgage for 18 months?). But in another sign that numbers are down this year, late arrivals can pick up bargain hotel rooms (well, for Davos).

Cheap as chips: One delegate nabbed a last-minute room in a central Davos hotel for €400 a night, and a quick search shows bargains can be had in hotels around the Promenade.

FALLING ON HARD TIMES: Could this lonely-looking handwritten sign on the Promenade offering a “Room 4 Rent” be an indication that Davos residents are falling on hard times? Looks like the days of canny locals flogging their home for weekly rates in the tens of thousands may be over.

HOTEL CALIFORNIA: While the Congress Center Central Lounge is as busy as ever, the Belvedere Hotel was a shadow of its former self on Monday night. Gone were the queues and heavy security, though Bank of America and others held a smattering of receptions which offered lots of the old-school Davos schmoozing. Let’s see if things get busier as the week progresses.

PANDEMIC POLITICS: With COVID cases on the rise in some parts of the world and monkeypox arriving with a bang, today sees a range of panels focused on the current pandemic and how to prevent the next one. One to watch: “Preparing for the Next Pandemic” with Bill Gates (who, we’re told, ironically, had to delay his arrival in Davos having contracted COVID). It’s on at 5:30 p.m.

HAVES AND HAVE-NOTS: Davos-goers were given a rap on the knuckles from everyone’s favorite angry white man, Bernie Sanders. “The oligarchs in Davos party, the poor suffer,” the U.S. senator tweeted, noting that more than 2,000 billionaires became trillions richer during the pandemic, while 260 million people throughout the world will likely be pushed into extreme poverty this year. Harsh, but true.

MONDAY RECAP: POLITICO Editor-in-Chief Matthew Kaminski interviewed GAVI’s Seth Berkley, Oxfam International’s Gabriela Bucher, Wellcome Trust’s Jeremy Farrar and Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel. Watch the session here.

Truth serum: “Something done early is better than something bigger done late,” Wellcome Trust’s Farrar said.

AUTOCRATS STILL WELCOME: Russians may be persona non grata at Davos this year, but that doesn’t stop some of the world’s most dubious regimes strutting their stuff at the World Economic Forum. The Mohammed bin Salman Foundation has a sleek venue on the Promenade — and a handy tactic for luring in visitors: the promise of premium ice cream.

Don’t bite: Cardamom and saffron ice cream may sound enticing, but the details don’t gel. The flavor is made by pumping saffron water onto regular old soft serve. Our verdict: Skip.

CHECK THESE OUT: Ukraine House and the revamped Russian War Crimes House may be in the limelight this year, but there are also some notable Davos debuts — Greek House and Namibia House.

TOP MERCH: While the WEF umbrella is the most covetable item this year (for lamentable weather reasons rather than the quality of its crafting), check out these cashmere scarves from Burjeel House (modeled by our own Ryan Heath).

SPOTTED at the Davos House Climate Nightcap hosted by Freuds’ OnePointFive and Protocol Climate (a sister publication of POLITICO): Jillian Moore and Marsha Trant of Avanade … Meta’s chief business officer, Marne Levine … Youth climate activist Alexandria Villaseñor … IBM’s Jonathan Adashek … Protocol’s Bennett Richardson and Brian Kahn … Mubadala’s Brian Lott … Randstad’s Sarah Campbell Donia … Micron’s Erica Pompen … NBCUniversal’s Lee Thompson and KC Sullivan … Freuds CEO Arlo Brady … David Livingston and Varun Sivaram, advisers to U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry.

REHYDRATE (WITH TURNIP): Playbook tried all the unappetizing-smelling concoctions available at the Congress Hall juice bar. Our reviews (and the photos) are in:

1. Beetroot juice: Sweet-tasting and recommended by WEF staff as the healthiest choice.

2. Pumpkin juice: On the strength of one senior POLITICO reporter loving this one, we’re giving it second billing.

4. Red cabbage juice: Is actually purple — and a bit meh.

1. Tucked away in the corner of the Central Lounge, baristas serve Colombian coffee to beat the band.

2. Snapdragon has decent free coffee at a cart outside Promenade 77, near “Planetary Upgrade Piazza” (yes, that is a real place).

WHAT WEF WANTS YOU TO READ

If you didn’t get WEF’s internal newsletter (we hear it sold out quickly), we’re saving you the trouble by providing highlights of its PR below.

The gold medal for self-promotion goes to the staff member who lobbied for this Time Magazine cover featuring Klaus Schwab … leading the world in some kind of suited hike to the promised land (Davos?). The magazine has pride of place in the Media Center.

How the world can rebuild cooperation, by WEF President Børge Brende.

Five things to watch for at Summer Davos.

No business as usual at a Forum like no other.

— The Geopolitical Outlook; Panelists include Andrzej Duda, president of Poland, Gregory Meeks, chair of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto among others. Congress Centre, Sanada, 10:45 a.m.

— U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo participates in “Defining the U.S. in a Changing World,” Congress Centre, Sanada, 5:45 p.m.

— Europe’s Global Role, ECB chief Christine Lagarde gives opening remarks at a dinner event that brings together the leaders of Greece, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba as well as senior European commissioners and IMF No. 2 Gita Gopinath. Congress Centre, Parsenn/Pischa, 8 p.m.

— The Mooch schmooze fest is back again this year. Skybridge is hosting a wine tasting forum, 9 p.m.

THANKS TO: Editor Zoya Sheftalovich and producer Grace Stranger.

**A message from SQM: SQM (one of the world’s largest lithium producers) is supporting the UNFCCC’s ‘Race to Zero’ campaign by developing green lithium to fuel the electric vehicles needed for the transition to Net Zero. As part of Race to Zero, SQM is committing to the goal of reducing emissions across all its activities in line with the Paris Agreement, with transparent action plans and robust short- and long-term targets, which they will report on annually. The company has already begun exploring its options for making its logistics routes low carbon, by introducing Chile’s first high-tonnage electric truck to be used in large-scale mining, which could eliminate approximately 3.840 tons of CO2 per year. SQM is also committed to high social and environmental performance and is the second lithium mining globally company that started an independent third-party audit against the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) Standard. Read more here.**

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