Putin faces rival visions of war and peace at Russia's 'Davos'

ST PETERSBURG, Russia - President Vladimir Putin faced two rival outlines of Russia’s future on Thursday as he hosted his premier annual investment conference with the war in Ukraine unabated.

Some participants at the glitzy St Petersburg International Economic Forum said Russia should fight on and gird for global confrontation with the West.

Others highlighted the economic benefits to be reaped from ending a war that came almost to the forum’s doorstep when Ukrainian drones hit a St Petersburg oil terminal and naval base on Wednesday, sending smoke billowing over parts of the city.

The conflicting narratives illustrate the debate underway among political and business leaders over what the future might hold for Russia, and the domestic influences on Putin after more than four years of war in Ukraine.

Putin’s deputy chief of staff, Maxim Oreshkin, told the conference it was pointless to expect the old days to return or for the West to lift sanctions.

“You should not wait for something to change, for something to come back; it will not come back and it will not change,” Oreshkin said. 

Balancing rival factions

Putin, 73, has long ruled by balancing the views of different Kremlin factions vying for influence with the man who has been Russia’s paramount leader for the past quarter of a century.

Signs that the $3-trillion economy is stagnating as the war drags on with no end in sight have strengthened the arguments of some within the “elite” that the war should be ended and peace struck with the mediation of U.S. President Donald Trump.

But some nationalists see the war as merely the first stage of a much deeper global confrontation with what they say is a declining West that means years - or even decades - of possibly global war.

“We have to admit that we will be at war in the next few years, maybe for a couple of decades,” said Andrey Bezrukov, a former spy arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2010 while living under a false identity in the United States.

“It may be a very hot war, it may be a creeping war. Even if it goes to other regions, we will have two generations that can be considered basically to be at war. And we need to learn how to live with this war,” Bezrukov said to applause in a packed hall.

Nationalists have said Russia must get in shape or face potential collapse and destruction.

Among ideas put forward by nationalists at the conference, often portrayed as Russia’s answer to the World Economic Forum in Davos, were streamlining decision-making, developing technology and changing the perception of the Russian army within Russian society.

Weapons on show

In pavilions once graced each year by financiers from Western companies such as Goldman Sachs, drones and weapons were on show, while cyber firms advertised facial recognition technology and advanced cyber defensive programs that use AI.

Russia controls about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory following Putin’s decision to send in tens of thousands of troops in February 2022, but its advances on the battlefield have slowed this year.

Russia has seized most of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine in fighting that began there in 2014 but has been unable to take the remaining 10% or so.

Ukraine says it will not withdraw its forces from the part of Donbas it still holds and that it will never recognise Russian sovereignty over Ukrainian territory Moscow has seized. Russia originally aimed to control all of Ukraine.

U.S.-brokered peace talks remain stalled, and Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Washington was “unfortunately” now paying less attention due to the Iran crisis.

Several prominent figures in Russia have tried in the past to warn Putin about the increasingly high economic costs of the war.

As Ukrainian drones and missiles target Russian oil facilities and military-industrial sites, Kirill Dmitriev, Moscow’s point man in contacts with the Trump administration, has been touting the potential economic benefits of a peace deal.

“The question is: does this war end or do we stare into a much tougher future?” one Russian participant told Reuters on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Putin says Moscow does not intend to attack NATO, whose member states’ combined economies dwarf that of Russia, even though it is the world’s biggest supplier of natural resources.

But ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin, whose daughter Darya was killed in a 2022 car bomb that Moscow blamed on Ukraine, told reporters the war in Ukraine “will end either with Russia’s victory or it will never end.”

“We need to gather all our strength, gather all of our will and stop pretending that we are a peaceful country that goes off to barbecues or summer vacations,” he said.

Dugin said Russia would not attack the West. But, asked to sum up Russia’s relations with the West in the coming years, he said simply: “War.”

Zelenskyy offers direct peace talks with Putin

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has offered direct peace talks with Putin in an open letter published on Thursday, after U.S.-led efforts to mediate an end to the war stalled.

“Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us — and you. I am proposing a meeting,” Zelenskyy wrote in the letter released by his office in Kyiv.

He said the two leaders should discuss the war’s “key issues” directly.

Zelenskyy ruled out both Kyiv and Moscow as venues for the talks, suggesting Switzerland, Turkey or a country in the “Arab world” as possible locations.

During a news conference with international journalists in St. Petersburg, Putin said he was “prepared to reach an agreement with Ukraine,” but reiterated his demand that Russia gain full control of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Kyiv has categorically rejected any territorial concessions.

As a first step towards peace, Zelenskyy proposed a ceasefire along the current front line to be monitored by the United States.

This could be followed by an “all-for-all exchange” of prisoners of war and the return of civilians and children whom Kyiv says were taken from Ukraine during the war.

Zelenskyy also said representatives of Europe and the United States should participate in the negotiations and potentially act as guarantors of any agreement.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not respond directly to the contents of the letter.

“President Putin has said that Zelenskyy can come to Moscow if he wants to talk,” Peskov told reporters in St. Petersburg.

Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected Moscow as a venue for negotiations.

US House OKs aid to Ukraine, sanctions on Russia

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Thursday to provide aid to Ukraine and impose new sanctions on Russia, the latest sign that some Republicans are willing to defy party leaders and push back on Trump.

The House voted 226 to 195 for the Ukraine Support Act, which reached the floor after languishing for months. A handful of Republicans joined Democrats in signing a discharge petition to force the vote.

On Thursday, 18 Republicans and one independent who normally votes with them joined Democrats to pass the bill. It was the latest sign of a crack in what had been virtually unanimous support among members of Trump’s party for his policies.

However, the future of the Ukraine Support Act is uncertain. To become law, it must be passed in the Senate, whose Republican leaders have not allowed votes on Russia sanctions legislation that has broad bipartisan support, saying they would wait for Trump’s guidance.

If it did pass the Senate, the bill would likely be vetoed by Trump. 

While many members of Congress from both parties strongly supported Ukraine in the first years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, some of Trump’s closest Republican allies - including House and Senate leadership - have grown cooler towards Kyiv since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.

The president has also kept decisions on sanctions at the White House, not Congress, since starting his second term.

U.S. aid to the Kyiv government has slowed sharply even as Russia and Ukraine have been pummeling each other with missiles, drones and artillery.

The Ukraine Support Act includes measures to help Ukraine rebuild after the war, authorizes more than $1 billion in assistance for Kyiv, and up to $8 billion in support via direct loans.

It also imposes stiff sanctions and export controls on Russia, including on financial institutions, oil and mining and Russian officials. 

Additional reporting by Mark Bendeich and dpa correspondents.

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 7:16 AM.