Secretive Bilderberg meeting to address Russia, cyber threats and Brexit as 130 of world's elite including Henry Kissinger, Mark Carney and the Dutch King prepare for Swiss summit
- More than a hundred dignitaries from 23 countries will attend at Montreux
- Bankers, Prime Ministers and CEOs will discuss topics under strict secrecy
- Talking points include Russia, Brexit and the weaponisation of social media
- The meeting of the rich and powerful attracts protest and conspiracy theories
More than a hundred of the world's elite including Henry Kissinger, Mark Carney and the Dutch King will meet at the secretive Bilderberg summit this week.
Bankers, Prime Ministers, CEOs and defence experts will meet in Montreux, Switzerland, to discuss a wide range of topics including Russia, cyber threats and Brexit.
From Thursday to Sunday 130 influential men and women from 23 countries will meet under strict secrecy rules and the precise location of their venue has not been revealed.
Notable attendees include former US Secretary of State Kissinger, Governor of the Bank of England Carney, former CIA director David Petraeus and White House Adviser Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law.
Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney (pictured in London earlier this month) will attend the Bilderberg Group's summit in Montreux, Switzerland taking place from Thursday to Sunday
Former Director of the CIA David Petraeus (pictured in Bogota this month) will be attending the exclusive meeting
The luxurious jet-set city of Montreux on the banks of Lake Geneva is the site of this year's Bilderberg summit - the precise location of the event has not been disclosed
Google chief Jared Cohen, who heads the Jigsaw subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., will also be in attendance, as well as Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary and anti-Brexit Labour peer Lord Andrew Adonis.
According to the Bilderberg Group, their discussions will be 'informal' and without specific agenda, besides their publicised list of broad talking points.
They do not vote, they do not set policy and they do not release statements, the group claim.
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In addition, they hold talks under Chatham House rules - members can use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of a speaker nor any other participant may be revealed.
News outlets are not invited to the event, though there are journalists attending, including Economist editor Zanny Minton Beddoes and Bloomberg editor John Micklethwait.
The meeting attracts protesters and many conspiracy theorists have ideas about how the Bilderberg Group control the world.
It is not known exactly where the meeting is being held in the city on the shores of Lake Geneva but the five-star Fairmont Le Montreux Palace is fully booked.
In recent annual meetings security has soared to tens of millions in ensuring the safety of the dignitaries.
Some have made wild claims that the group serves as a front for the Illuminati, a secret and sinister order founded in 18th century Bavaria.
In 2018, the Daily Mail were able to embed an investigative reporter as a waitress at the unassuming four-star hotel in Turin, northern Italy, for their conference.
Security was tight around the perimeter with military police and sniffer dogs checking for explosives, while powerful attendees quaffed champagne and ate canapes.
The 'waitress' was told not to engage with guests and to 'look down.'
But she was able to glean the guests were provided yellow paper 'score cards' on which they must give TripAdvisor-style self-evaluation assessments of talks.
On each form delegates must rate discussions on a scale of one to five including 'importance of topic', 'quality of panellist', 'interaction' and so on.
Journalist Jon Ronson wrote a book about the Bilderberg Group, called Them, and the late Labour MP Denis Healey, who co-founded the group, told him: 'Bilderberg is the most useful international group I ever attended. The confidentiality enabled people to speak honestly without fear of repercussions.'
King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands (pictured at Buckingham Palace last year) will be attending the summit in Montreux
Anti-Brexit Labour peer Lord Andrew Adonis (pictured in London last year) will be in attendance with the Bilderberg Group
Ever since its formation in 1954 - at the Hotel Bilderberg in the Netherlands - the talks have been shrouded in mystery because no minutes are kept of what was discussed.
Prince Bernhard, of the Netherlands, who co-founded the group said it was so 'that severe economic dips like the Great Depressions could be avoided if responsible and influential leaders could manage world events behind their necessary public posturing'.
The idea was for a big talking shop attended by the great and the good where the mistakes of the past could be learned and the problems of the future avoided.
