“Do we have a Putin or a Russia problem?” A Research Initiative on Post-Soviet Space

Place: Digital Lab 213, Arts West, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria.

Time: 6.15 p.m. AEST.

Speakers: Visiting Fellows at the ANU Centre for European Studies, Dr Matthew Sussex (Griffith University) and Mr Peter Tesch (former ambassador to the Russian Federation).

A peaceful resolution to President Putin’s war of choice against Ukraine is an ever more distant prospect, as Putin made clear in his remarks at the recent St Petersburg International Economic Forum.  As we are seeing in Europe, war, sabotage and subversion are key instruments of statecraft in what is becoming a systemic struggle between authoritarianism and accountable democracies.  Malign actors like Russia are skilled at exploiting the fractiousness and contestability that are inherent in, and the strength of, our society.

Peter Tesch is Adjunct Professor, School of Languages and Cultures, University of Queensland; Visiting Fellow, Centre for European Studies, Australian National University; Distinguished Advisor, National Security College, Australian National University; and Senior Fellow, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Canberra. A former Australian Ambassador to the Russian Federation, he has held several senior diplomatic roles. In September 2021 he took the Australian lead for AUKUS Advanced Capabilities in the AUKUS partnership with the United Kingdom and the United States.

Dr Matthew Sussex is Associate Professor (Adjunct) at the Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University; Visiting Fellow at the Strategic and Defence Studies  Centre, ANU; Fellow at the Institute for Regional Security; and Visiting Fellow at the Centre for European Studies, ANU. His books include The Palgrave Handbook of National Security (Palgrave, 2021); The Belt and Road Initiative and the Future of Regional Order (Lexington, 2020); Violence and the State (Manchester University Press, 2017); Power, Politics and Confrontation in Eurasia  (Palgrave, 2015); Russia, Eurasia and the New Geopolitics of Energy (Palgrave, 2015); and Conflict in the Former USSR (Cambridge University Press, 2012).