How to Handle Russia: Keep Calm and Carry On

Dangerously dysfunctional relations between Washington and Moscow have been blamed by the press, pundits, and politicians on the failure of U.S. policymakers to properly “read” Vladimir Putin and thus to predict the Kremlin’s supposedly strategic foreign policy agenda. Putin’s re-election in March will then mean continued tension between Russia and the West.

Matthew Rojansky, Director of the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., argues that this concern with “Putinology” comes at the expense of understanding and responding to the deeper trends that are likely to shape Russian policy regardless of who is in the top job at the Kremlin. Join us on February 28 for a timely discussion on how the U.S. should handle Russia with Rojansky and former CNN Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty.