Delegates have been complaining about robust treatment at the hands of Vladimir Putin's formidable security detail. Unlike most leaders, who wander round with a handful of aides, the Russian Prime Minister is escorted by a fearsome army of bodyguards who tend to move at a brisk pace, shoving delegates who inconveniently clutter the precincts out of the way.

— Herman Gref, the former Russian Economics Minister, continued the ferocious attack on the West's handling of the crisis started by his ex-boss Putin. Strangely, Mr Gref absolved the banks and credit-rating agencies for creating the mess, which he blamed solely on the regulators, much to the relief of Gary Cohn, president of Goldman Sachs, who was sitting next to him. But Mr Gref baffled his audience by switching to climate change. As the “world emissions centre”, America was putting its own interests ahead of the rest of the globe he said. It later became clear that this had lost something in translation: he was referring to the Federal Reserve flooding the world with Treasury bills, not greenhouse gases.

— David Cameron, the Tory leader, seems to have developed an odd idea of what kind of leader might appeal to an anxious British public. Speaking in a debate on leadership qualities, he suggested that good leaders needed to be “like sharks”. His idea referred to the fact that if sharks stop moving they die. Fretful Brits may well fear the present crisis has seen them suffer quite enough of sharks.

— This year's muted talks got their first injection of real drama on Thursday — courtesy of the politicians. Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stormed off stage during an impassioned debate over Gaza. Mr Erdogan was cut off by the moderator while attempting to reply to a wordy diatribe by Israel's President Peres. “You are killing people,” he declared. Mr Peres, finger pointing, replied that he would have done the same if rockets were falling on Istanbul. After the moderator cut him off, Mr Erdogan stormed from the stage, declaring he would never return. Klaus Schwab, the Forum's chairman, swiftly convened a press conference with the tantrum-throwing Turk.

— Valerie Jarrett, the doughty aide to President Obama and one of the new US commander-in-chief's closest aides, left Davos participants enthused by the new incumbent of the White House distinctly underwhelmed with her appearance in the Alps as Mr Obama's “representative on Earth”. Jarrett delivered a bland speech talking of how Mr Obama promised hope, trust and responsibility that left delegates muttering about “propaganda — even if it's propaganda we like” and “motherhood and apple pie”. He'd hardly want to represent despair, mistrust and irresponsibility, would he?

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