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Regular version of the site

Open lecture of Richard Sakwa on the topic “Russia’s Futures”

16+
*recommended age
Event ended

Dear Colleagues, the International Laboratory of World Order and New Regionalism invites you on December 11 at 3:30 p.m. to visit an open lecture of Richard Sakwa on the topic “Russia’s Futures”.

While it is impossible to predict the future, we can nevertheless anticipate certain outcomes. The lecture of Richard Sakwa is following the routes of his book “Russia’s Futures”.

There are many in Russia who argue that the country is once again heading towards some sort of revolutionary breakdown. In the twentieth century Russia already had two major moments of state collapse, in 1917 and 1991, but a third one in the near future is unlikely. In fact, the whole system established by Vladimir Putin is dedicated to putting an end to Russia’s revolutionary cycle. This creates problems of its own, since the maintenance of stability at almost any cost generates rigidity and a lack of dynamism, which are precisely the conditions that provoke resistance and possible breakdown. However, so far the system has retained enough innovatory potential, effective governance and delivery of public goods to ensure its survival into the medium term. Russia is not the kleptocratic dictatorship of myth.

We can anticipate a number of futures, and although a crisis generated by foreign pressure and internal opposition cannot be excluded, the more likely option is the continuation of attempts to fulfil the potential of the democratic revolution of 1991. In subsequent years a constitutional state was established whose normative foundations remain firmly committed to the rule of law, balanced government and civil freedoms. Practice, of course, does not always meet these standards, accompanied by the emergence already under Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s of an administrative system that stands above the constitution, claiming certain prerogative powers to push through reforms, maintain stability and to defend Russia’s sovereign independence in an intensely competitive international system. The democratic revolution will be complete when the administrative system is brought under the control of the civic institutions of the constitutional state. The lecturer suggests that this is not excluded, but neither is it guaranteed.

Richard Sakwa is Professor of Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent at Canterbury and an Associate Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House. He has published widely on Soviet, Russian, European and post-communist affairs.

The lecture will be held on December 11, 3:30 p.m.

Address: 17 Malaya Ordinka St., room. 106

The working language is English.

If you're intending to come, please, fill the registration form