"I am confident that Alexander will soon become the leading scorer in the history of the Russian national team," the 39-year-old Beschastnykh told local media on Thursday. "He can even surpass my achievement in the coming friendly matches."
Russia, who qualified for next year's World Cup finals after winning Europe's Group F, play Serbia at the Zabeel Stadium in Dubai on Friday and South Korea at the same venue on Tuesday.
However, Kerzhakov, scorer of 24 goals in 77 internationals, said it was not fair to separate the Russian scoring records from the Soviet-era ones.
"You know, there are many different opinions about the Russian and Soviet records," said the 30-year-old. "I still think it's not quite right to divide them."
Oleg Blokhin (42), Oleg Protasov (29) and Valentin Ivanov (26) were the Soviet Union team's leading scorers.
Kerzhakov, who is the most prolific striker in Russian football with 211 goals in competitive matches, said he remembered all his goals for the national team.
"Honestly, I remember all of them, they are not so many after all," Kerzhakov said. "The first one was against Sweden in Moscow (in a friendly in August 2002)."
Kerzhakov is expected to lead Russia's attack against Serbia with coach Capello still pondering over the other striker in the starting lineup after Dynamo Moscow Alexander Kokorin was late joining the team in Dubai on Thursday after losing his passport.
(Writing by Angel Krasimirov in Sofia, Editing by Clare Fallon)
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