Crimea? Pshaw. CEOs Want to Party With Putin

Update: Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat will not travel to the conference, spokesman Mark Costiglio said in an e-mail sent after this story was first published. Other Citi employees will attend in his stead.

“From the start, the United States has mobilized the international community in support of Ukraine to isolate Russia for its actions,” President Obama said on March 17, as he announced new sanctions against Russia for sending troops into Crimea. Putin’s aggression, he said, “will achieve nothing except to further isolate Russia and diminish its place in the world.” Top executives at Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Visa, PepsiCo, Alcoa, and other corporations may not go along with the president’s shaming technique. Their chief executive officers are slated to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in May, an annual confab of economists, business figures, and policymakers that’s illustrating how the gears of commerce keep turning even as diplomacy seizes up.