Rumours of realpolitiking were rife, but it’s OK – Matt Damon was in town

If Putin tried to go to Davos, he’d be arrested and charged with war crimes.

- Giles Whittell

But what about lesser Russian villains?

‘The wildest rumour I heard last week was that a big contingent of Russian agents from the FSB and GRU (military intelligence) were ensconced in four rented houses “a couple of villages down the valley”, working out their side of a Russian-Ukrainian peace deal which, as usual, hasn’t been announced.

My source was a Scandinavian investor type with a Mountainhead wardrobe and no reason to know about these agents except he said he'd been chatting with a former British prime minister whose name may or may not rhyme with hammer on. Or toon hack. I forget.

In any case, so much of Davos is bright lights and microphones at the intersection of overhyped tech and fatuous cliche that it was good to at least imagine a spot of stone-cold realpolitik at the intersection of good and evil.