12:00 noon
Virtual (register here)

More than twenty years ago, a largely unknown former KGB officer became President of Russia, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. At the time, Russia was in shambles. After the disintegration of its empire of around 70 years, the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.), Russia saw the collapse of its economic and social system. The erstwhile superpower had turned into a basket case. Putin was determined to reverse Russia’s decline. By concentrating economic and political power in his hands, the President largely succeeded. As Russia regained its strength at home, it started to flex its muscles abroad. In 2008, Russian troops invaded Georgia and helped separatists to break away from this country once and for all. In 2014, it did the same in Crimea. And a few days ago, it returned to wrest away even more territory from Ukraine. The playbook is almost always identical. It is much less clear though what Putin really wants – forcing the West to renegotiate a new security structure for Europe, resuscitating the Soviet Union, building himself a legacy comparable to Alexander, the Great? In his lecture, Christof Stefes will try to answer this question. He will also assess how the West should respond to Russia’s aggressive foreign and security policy.