Vladimir Putin has warned of the “most dangerous decade since World War Two” in a chilling claim.
Mr Putin showed no regrets for his war in Ukraine, insisting that the "special military operation" was still achieving its goals and the West's dominance over world affairs was coming to an end.
Inveighing against the West for more than three-and-a-half hours in a question-and-answer session at an annual foreign policy conference in Moscow, Mr Putin appeared confident and relaxed.
Asked if there had been any disappointments in the past year, Mr Putin answered simply: "No", though he also said he always thinks about Russians lost in Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin
Reuters
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
GLEB GARANICH
The speech contained a familiar litany of grievances against "our Western opponents", who he said faced the inevitable crumbling of their "hegemony".
Western leaders had undermined "traditional values" around the world, foisting a culture with "dozens of genders, gay parades" on other countries.
Mr Putin accused the West of inciting the war in Ukraine and of playing a "dangerous, bloody and dirty" game that was sowing chaos across the world.
"The historical period of the West's undivided dominance over world affairs is coming to an end," Mr Putin said.
"We are standing at a historical frontier: Ahead is probably the most dangerous, unpredictable and, at the same time, important decade since the end of World War Two."
Elsewhere, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stood outside in the dark beside the wreckage of a downed drone and vowed that widespread Russian attacks on power plants would not break Ukrainian spirits.
Abandoning his usual indoor setting, Mr Zelenskyy said in his daily video address on Thirsday that Kyiv had shot down 23 drones in the last two days.
Russia has aimed dozens of missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles at Ukraine's electricity generating network in the last two weeks, causing major damage and triggering blackouts.
"Shelling will not break us - to hear the enemy's anthem on our land is scarier than the enemy's rockets in our sky. We are not afraid of the dark," he said.
Kyiv and four regions may have to cut electricity supplies for longer than planned after Russian strikes, a senior official said on Thursday.
Mr Zelenskyy said that Russia had so far launched more than 8,000 air strikes and fired 4,500 missiles.
