Speakers
Senior Fellow at Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik
Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations
Professor at Charles University
Programme Director at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Moderator
Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University
It takes two to tango. No matter how toxic the relationship between the west and Russia has been over the decades, there has always been a sizable coalition—of Putinversteher, realpolitikers, business and economic interests, and simple naïveté—advocating for maintaining it. Although their arguments have weakened since 2022, those schools of thought, as well as their scholars and practitioners, are still there and ready to reason a new rapprochement. Some contend that we need to have a plan in place for the day after the war to steer Russia in a direction that is more acceptable to the west. Is there still a relationship to be saved? What should relations with Russia be based on in the future?