The Russia File - Russia and the West: Highs and Lows

Russia and the West: Highs and Lows

12/16/21 • 27 min

Over the past 10 years or so, Russia’s relations with the West have been reaching new lows. In bilateral terms, no other relationship has been more indicative of that trajectory than the one with Great Britain. The story of Russian-British ties, partnership, and animosity is thus important to explore. Joining the Kennan Institute's Maxim Trudolubov to discuss this is David Owen, a veteran British politician, who was active in Britain's Russia politics both in Soviet and post-Soviet Russian times. Lord Owen has just published the book Riddle, Mystery, and Enigma, taking a long view of the West’s struggles to understand Russia.

Previous Episode

The Autocrats’ Playbook: Putin’s Russia and Erdogan’s Turkey

Many prefer to measure today's authoritarian regimes against the West’s standards in everything from governance to culture. But taking a closer look at the authoritarian world itself and studying its evolution is probably more illuminating.

Despite constant geopolitical infighting, Russia and Turkey display striking similarities in the stance they take toward the West. Moscow and Ankara's crackdown on media, political opponents, the non-governmental sector and even independent universities inevitably call for comparisons between the two.

The Kennan Institute's Maxim Trudolyubov discusses novel authoritarian trends with Ayşe Zarakol, reader in international relations at the University of Cambridge, and Sergei Guriev, professor of economics at Sciences Po Paris.

Next Episode

Crumbling Memory: Russian Propaganda, World War II, and the Invasion of Ukraine

The war in Ukraine has highlighted Russian propaganda and the way it weaponizes the memory of World War II for political purposes—in this case, to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In this episode, Izabella Tabarovsky digs deep into Russia’s myths about the war and considers how the invasion of Ukraine is causing that entire symbolic universe to crumble. Guest: Dr. David Hoffmann. Commentators: Dr. Ivan Kurilla and Maxim Trudolyubov.

For show notes and additional information, visit our website here: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/audio/crumbling-memory-russian-propaganda-world-war-ii-and-invasion-ukraine