Igor Sechin, Executive Secretary of the Commission under the President of the Russian Federation for Strategic Development of the Fuel and Energy Sector and Environmental Security, concluding his speech at the Energy Panel during the XXIX St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, noted that the formation of the global economy will be significantly affected by the lack of critical natural resources.

"So, what is left under the lid at the bottom of Pandora's Box? According to Hesiod, it is hope. And in a more accurate translation of this myth, it's empty hopes and vain expectations," Sechin said, continuing the comparison of the global economy with the ancient Greek myth.

" In our case, at the bottom of the box we will inevitably discover a global energy shortage, deficit of food, copper and other metals, shortage of water, which will determine the new face of the global economy. Is everyone ready to face new threats?" he said.

The one who is better prepared for this than others will survive. " This will be, in essence, "the end of the beginning", when empty hopes, illusions and salvatory chimeras will disappear forever," the Executive Secretary of the Presidential Commission on the Fuel and Energy Complex believes. 

At the same time, Igor Sechin quoted the poet and philosopher Stanislaw Jerzy Lec: "Eternity is a temporary solution until the beginning and the end are determined."

" The real end of the systemic crisis and the formation of a new normality are still very far away. Not everyone will see it come.Nevertheless, as Ecclesiastes reads: ‘The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride'," Igor Sechin concluded his report "The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning: What’s left at the Bottom of Pandora's Box?"

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Rosneft Oil Company
June 6, 2026