At Russia's flagship economic forum on 3 June, Konstantin Malofeev, founder of the Russian Orthodox monarchist media network Tsargrad and a US-sanctioned financier of Russia's 2014 Donbas operation, presented a "Russia 2050" report whose "positive" scenario includes the use of nuclear weapons, Russian outlet Agentstvo reports.
Alexander Dugin, the ultraright philosopher most associated with the russkiy mir (Russian world) concept and co-author of the report, joined Malofeev on stage at the Petersburg International Economic Forum.
The report sets out three scenarios: an "inertial" trajectory ending in "American and Chinese hegemony" over Russia; a "bad" scenario in which Russia loses the war and is "colonized" by 2050; and a "good" scenario in which Russia "obtains a clear image of victory in the ideological war," uses nuclear weapons, annexes Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv "and so on," and watches the European Union disintegrate.
Who are Malofeev and Dugin?
Konstantin Malofeev founded Tsargrad TV and the Katehon think tank and has been sanctioned by the US since 2014 for his role in financing Russia's seizure of Crimea and Igor Girkin's group during the early Donbas invasion.
UK Defence Intelligence has tracked Malofeev's funding of a separate radical nationalist student movement, the "Brotherhood of Academics", which envisions the 21st century as "a golden century of Russian culture with Russian ideological dominance on a global scale."
Dugin, sanctioned by both the US and EU, is the architect of Russian neo-Eurasianism, theorist of the "Fourth Political Theory", and an open advocate of Russian imperial expansion. Since 2012, he has regularly called for the killing of Ukrainians, the invasion, and opposed the existence of Ukraine as an independent state.
What "good" scenario contains
The Tsargrad-published account of Malofeev's SPIEF remarks ends the "good" scenario in 2050 with Russia in a "leadership position in providing global security and justice." The intermediate stages include annexation of Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, and additional Ukrainian cities; the disintegration of the European Union; and Russia "winning the ideological war" through "forecasting and design."
By contrast, the "bad" scenario foresees Russia losing the war by 2036 and being "colonized" by 2050.
Where report has already been presented
Dugin told the SPIEF audience that the unpublished report had already been presented at the Russian Ministry of Defense's General Staff Academy, and that Russia's need for an articulated ideology "is constantly discussed" in the Presidential Administration. SPIEF 2026 runs until 6 June, with Russian President Vladimir Putin's plenary address scheduled for 5 June.
