Russia is preparing for a prolonged period of global confrontation lasting “a couple of decades,” according to a senior adviser to one of the country’s most powerful oil executives, in remarks that underline how deeply entrenched the language of long-term conflict has become within parts of Moscow’s strategic elite.
Andrei Bezrukov, a retired colonel of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and adviser to Igor Sechin, the chief executive of energy giant Rosneft, said Russians must accept that the country is entering an era defined by sustained military and geopolitical struggle.
“We must acknowledge that in the coming years, perhaps a couple of decades, we will be in a state of war,” he said at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
The comments were delivered at Russia’s flagship economic gathering, an event traditionally designed to showcase resilience, attract foreign investment and project confidence in the country’s long-term economic trajectory. Instead, this year’s forum was overshadowed by the language of conflict and the visible strains of a prolonged war footing.
Bezrukov suggested the confrontation would not be limited to conventional warfare, but would include what he described as a “creeping war” spanning multiple regions and generations.
“Two generations will effectively grow up during wartime,” he said, adding that Russia had reached what he called “the first hump of a world war,” with the potential for further escalation in Asia and beyond.
His remarks reflect a broader ideological shift in parts of Russia’s security establishment, where the conflict in Ukraine is increasingly framed not as a discrete military campaign but as part of a wider, multi-decade confrontation with the West.
Bezrukov also claimed that the United States was losing its global dominance, saying “the hegemon is no longer a hegemon,” and suggested that new international conflicts would emerge as global power balances continue to shift.
He repeated long-standing accusations of Western biological weapons research near Russia’s borders — claims repeatedly dismissed by Western governments — and urged Moscow to restructure its economy and state systems around long-term militarisation and defence readiness.
A former Soviet intelligence officer, Bezrukov previously operated undercover in the United States under the identity Donald Heathfield before being arrested by the FBI in 2010 as part of a high-profile spy swap. He later returned to Russia with his family and has since become a prominent commentator on geopolitics and strategic affairs.
His intervention comes against a backdrop of heightened tension surrounding the St Petersburg forum itself. Ukrainian strikes reportedly hit energy and military-related sites in the city around the time of the event’s opening, sending plumes of smoke into the air and disrupting what is often described as Russia’s answer to Davos.
The contrast was stark: while thousands of delegates from more than 100 countries gathered to discuss investment and economic cooperation, senior figures were openly discussing the prospect of decades of sustained conflict.
For the Kremlin, the forum is intended to project stability and global relevance. Yet remarks such as Bezrukov’s instead reinforce a growing perception that Russia’s political and economic future is increasingly being shaped through the lens of permanent confrontation.
Whether such rhetoric reflects official doctrine or the worldview of influential insiders, it highlights a strategic reality that is becoming harder to ignore: Russia is increasingly defining its trajectory not around peace or normalisation, but around the expectation of long-term conflict.
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