Seminar 31. Richard Sakwa: “From Peaceful Change to Cold War II: The Failure of the Post-Communist Moment”

On Monday, 20 December 2021, The Department of International Relations and International Laboratory on World Order Studies and the New Regionalism of National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University) held the 31st session of Eurasian Online Seminar.

Our guest was Professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent, Leading Research Fellow at the  International Laboratory on World Order Studies and the New Regionalism of the HSE University Richard Sakwa. The topic of his talk was “From Peaceful Change to Cold War II: The Failure of the Post-Communist Moment”.

Professor Sakwa joined the School of Politics and International Relations in 1987, was promoted to a professorship in 1996 and was Head of School between 2001 and 2007, and in 2010 he once again took over as Head of School until 2014. While completing his doctorate on Moscow politics during the Civil War (1918-21) he spent a year on a British Council scholarship at Moscow State University (1979-80), and then worked for two years in Moscow in the 'Mir' Science and Technology Publishing House. Before moving to Kent he lectured at the University of Essex and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Prof. Sakwa is a Leading Research Fellow at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow and an Honorary Professor in the Faculty of Political Science, Moscow State University.

Professor Sakwa is a prolific writer. He has written multiple books and articles about Russia, Central and Eastern European communist and post-communist politics and international relations including Russian Politics and Society (5th edition, 2020), The Putin Paradox (2020), Russia Against the Rest: The Post-Cold War Crisis of World Order (2017); Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands (2014); Putin Redux: Power and Contradiction in Contemporary Russia (2014); Soviet Politics in Perspective (2012); The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union (2005). His most recent book Deception: Russiagate and the New Cold War was published earlier this year by Lexington Books. Professor Sakwa’s writings and opinions are always timely and often run against the main tide of orthodox views.