„A Strategy for Russia” – Russian Foreign Policy and Global Positioning in the Next Decade

Time: November 27, 2017 (Monday)

Venue: Central European University, Budapest, Nádor utca 9, Popper Room

The exchange of mutual allegations, the constant re-drawing of red lines and in its very core, the diametrically opposed understanding of the system of international relations has allowed the serious deterioration of relations between Russia and the West to reach a new low in the past two years. As a consequence, it enabled Fyodor Lukyanov and Alexei Miller to go as far as to envisage future scenarios and behavioural patterns of a Post-European Russia in their widely read publication series. The settlement process of protracted conflicts on the post-Soviet space has not produced any spectacular results so far. On the contrary, the war in Ukraine has not only become one more serious security concern, but immensely contributed to Russia’s isolation and to the militarization of its economy and society. Nevertheless, Russia is not only trying to form an appealing economic integration in its immediate vicinity but also vividly develops its ties with non-Western political and economic blocks.

The event is seeking to outline and evaluate a prognosis for the next 5 to10 years of Russian foreign policy. The idea is to bring top Russian academics and policy makers for a roundtable discussion to discuss a wide range of topics from Russia-US relations, prospects for relations with the European Union, conflicts in the Post-Soviet space, the future scenarios for the Eurasian Economic Union and beyond.

Please register with Ms Annamária Kiss at kissa@ceu.edu

9.30 Registration

9.45 Welcome Address

Jan Niklas Engels, Director, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Budapest

9.50 Introductory Remarks

Péter Balázs, Director of CEU Center for European Neighborhood Studies (CENS)

10.00  Panel I – Whither the West – No intention to engage?

Moderator: Anatoly Reshetnikov, PhD student, Department of International Relations, Central European University, Budapest

Sergei Utkin, Head of Foreign and Security Policy Department of the Centre for Strategic Research, Head of Department of Strategic Assessment, Centre for Situation Analysis, Russian Academy of Sciences

András Rácz, Associate Professor, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest

Samuel Greene, Director, King’s Russia Institute, King’s College, London, UK

11.30 Coffee break

12. 00 Panel II – Russia’s “Eastern Partnership”: Russian foreign policy in Eurasia and beyond

Moderator:Annamária Kiss, Researcher, Center for European Neighborhood Studies, CEU

Viacheslav Sutyrin, Editor-in-Chief, Eurasia.expert; Research Director at the Center of Integration Pespectives, Moscow 

András György Deák, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Institute of World Economics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest

Tony van der Togt, Senior Research Fellow, Netherlands Institute of International Relations (Clingendael Institute), The Hague

13.30 Concluding remarks

13.30 Refreshments