INVITATION: Hotspots of Democracy - Russia

INVITATION: Hotspots of Democracy - Russia

February 22, 2021

INVITATION

The CEU Democracy Institute cordially invites you to the next roundtable of the Hotspots of Democracy series:

GRASPING RUSSIAN DEMOCRACY WITH MIND: CAN WE STILL BELIEVE IN IT?

DATE: Monday / March 1, 2021 TIME: 14:00-15:30 CET DETAILS: https://events.ceu.edu/2021-03-01/grasping-russian-democracy-mind-can-we-still-believe-it

ABSTRACT

“You cannot grasp Russia with your mind

Or judge her by any common measure,

Russia is one of a special kind –

You can only believe in her.”

The poet Fyodor Tyutchev wrote this quatrain more than one and a half centuries ago, but the dilemma he formulates is still valid. The participants of the second edition of the Hotspots of Democracy debates will try to adapt the poetic question to the actual situation: Can we, after thirty decades, still believe in the rise of a liberal type of democratic system in Russia? Is the Navalny case the beginning of a new chapter for the Russian democracy or it is just a prologue for another change of oligarchic elite? Is the actual Russian political elite discredited enough to sharpen the reactions of the EU and USA? How should Western Democracies react to the openly repressive and anti-democratic measures of the Russian 'hybrid regime'? How would a change in internal power relations affect the global geo-political context for the EU?

BBC-journalist

Olga Ivshina

, political scientist

Ivan Krastev

, MEP

Sergey Lagodinsky

and legal expert

Olga Sidorovich

will address these questions in a discussion moderated by CEU’s President and Rector,

Michael Ignatieff

.

The discussion will be

streamed live on the Institute’s Facebook page

. If you are interested, then please join the

.

is a senior correspondent at BBC World Service. She is a journalist and TV broadcaster with more than 15 years of experience, specializing in politics, international relations, conflicts and religion. Prior to joining the BBC in 2012, she worked as a freelance reporter for Press Association, the national news agency for the UK and Ireland, and as correspondent and producer for VGTRK in Russia.

is chairman of the

, Sofia, and Permanent Fellow at the

(IWM). Beyond that, is a founding board member of the

, a member of the global advisory board of

, and a member of the advisory council of the

(CEPA) and the

(ECF). He is also associate editor of

Europe’s World

and a member of the editorial board of the

Journal of Democracy

and

Transit – Europäische Revue

. From 2004 to 2006 he has been the executive director of the International Commission on the Balkans chaired by the former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato. He was the editor-in-chief of the Bulgarian Edition of

Foreign Policy

and was a member of the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London (2005-2011).

is a Member of the European Parliament (Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance) where he serves on the Committee on Legal Affairs. He has been a non-resident fellow with the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin, and the Head of European Union and North America Division of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. His specialist expertise lies in transatlantic relations, international and constitutional law as well as law and politics of diversity and integration. He is a regular guest and commentator in numerous media. Before joining the Böll Foundation, he was an attorney with the Berlin office of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. Prior to this he served as Program Director, later as Advisor to the Board for the Berlin Office of the American Jewish Committee. In 2008 and 2009 he was a Fellow at the New Responsibility Foundation and in 2010 as a Yale World Fellow in New Haven.

is director of the

(ILPP). She has been leading the independent, Moscow-based policy development, research, and educational organization, aimed at promoting liberal and democratic values and the principles of the rule of law, pluralistic democracy, and full equality of individuals, since 1993. Under her leadership, the Institute became a winner of the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions in 2007. She is also editor-in-chief of two law journals,

Sravnitelnoe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie

and

Mezhdunarodnoe pravosudie

. Prior to joining ILPP, she worked as a research fellow at the Institute for USA and Canadian Studies, which is part of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as the Institute of Europe.

is President and Rector of CEU. An international commentator on contemporary issues of democracy, human rights, and governance and a Canadian citizen, Ignatieff is also an award-winning writer, teacher, former politician, and historian with a deep knowledge of Central and Eastern Europe. Ignatieff received his doctorate in history from Harvard University and has held academic posts at Kings College, Cambridge, the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia. He served in the Canadian Parliament and was Leader of the Liberal Party. His books include The Needs of Strangers (1984), Scar Tissue (1992), Blood and Belonging (1993), The Warrior’s Honour (1997), Isaiah Berlin (1998), The Rights Revolution (2000), Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry (2001), The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror (2004), Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics (2013), and The Ordinary Virtues: Moral Order in a Divided World (2017).