February 16: Life After Putin: Potential Scenarios for a Post-Authoritarian Russia

Many hundreds of thousands of Russians have fled their ever-more authoritarian country since the start of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, joining a global exile community that had already been growing for years. They include leaders of the political opposition, civil society and media who have long opposed the Kremlin, are natural allies against Russia’s war in Ukraine, and a key hope for reestablishing any future free and open Russian society.

Please join the Institute of Current World Affairs, American Purpose and US Institute of Peace for the final in a series of hybrid panel discussions. Miriam Lanskoy will moderate a conversation with Sergei Guriev, Natalia Arno, Mikhail Zygar and Jorgan Andrews discussing plausible scenarios for a post-authoritarian Russia. Jeffrey Gedmin, co-founder and editor-in-chief of American Purpose, will give introductory remarks.

What are the main challenges facing institutional and social reform—including the questions of decolonialization, understanding of history and Russian identity, and interests of minority regions? What roles should the United States and other Western countries be playing? What lessons learned from the post-Soviet 1990s?

Featuring:

• Jorgan Andrews, State Department fellow, U.S. Institute of Peace
• Natalia Arno, president and founder, Free Russia Foundation.
• Sergei Guriev, provost and professor of economics, Sciences Po Paris University; former rector, New Economic School, Moscow
• Mikhail Zygar, founding editor-in-chief, Dozhd
• Miriam Lanskoy (moderator), senior director, Russia and Eurasia, National Endowment for Democracy
• Jeffrey Gedmin, co-founder and editor-in-chief, American Purpose

Friday, February 16, 2024 from 10 a.m. - 11:30am EST

United States Institute of Peace
2301 Constitution Ave., NW
Washington, DC

Program also available online via livestream.

Image: A protest against the war in Ukraine, in Tbilisi, Georgia, where 20,000 Russians have arrived since the start of the war in Ukraine, March 12, 2022. (Laetitia Vancon/The New York Times).