One Year On: Where Now for Russia’s War?
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One Year On: Where Now for Russia’s War?
24th February 2023 @ 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin initiated a war against Ukraine. Since that day, more than 18,000 civilian casualties have been reported and as many as 8 million Ukrainians have been forced to evacuate. One year has now passed but what has the West learned about the best way of undermining Putin and his military strategy and capabilities? What do we know about Russia’s weak points and how do we exploit them going forward?
The Henry Jackson Society is pleased to welcome you to this meeting where a panel of distinguished experts will be taking a closer look at the international armoury of economic sanctions, stronger weaponry on the battlefield and enhanced diplomacy among the international community to create a more united front, including the possibility of engaging with domestic Russian opposition to the conflict.
Bill Browder was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005, when he was denied entry to the country and declared “a threat to national security” for exposing corruption in Russian state-owned companies. In 2008, Mr. Browder’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, uncovered a massive fraud committed by Russian government officials that involved the theft of US $230 million of state taxes. Sergei testified against state officials involved in this fraud and was subsequently arrested, imprisoned without trial and systematically tortured. He spent a year in prison under horrific detention conditions, was repeatedly denied medical treatment, and died in prison on November 16, 2009, leaving behind a wife and two children. Since then, Mr. Browder has sought justice outside of Russia and started a global campaign for governments around the world to impose targeted visa bans and asset freezes on human rights abusers and highly corrupt officials.
Marina Litvinenko is a public speaker and a campaigner for justice. Following the murder of her husband, Alexander Litvinenko, in November 2006, Marina began a decade long fight to get at the truth behind his assassination which resulted in the publication of a comprehensive public inquiry report in January 2016. Through this tragedy she found her own compelling voice, one that speaks with strength and conviction. Appearing in newspapers, magazines and on television screens, Marina has appealed to the public to heed the warning of her husband’s death. In her own way, she uses her public platform to continue what her husband started.
In 2007, she co-authored ‘Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB’ with Alex Goldfarb. In 2011 the two also published an updated version in Russian, ‘Sasha, Volodya, Boris: The Story of a Murder’. She attends and speaks at international seminars and conferences in the UK and abroad, participates in roundtable discussions and is involved in human rights causes.
Alan Mendoza is a Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Henry Jackson Society, Britain’s leading think tank fighting for the principles and alliances which keep societies free. He directs strategy for the organisation as well as acting as its main public face in mediums as diverse as the BBC, Sky, CNBC, Al-Jazeera, Bloomberg, LBC and TalkRadio. On the print side, Alan is a columnist for City AM, London’s business newspaper, and has contributed to The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Sun and a host of international newspapers and magazines.
Having obtained a B.A. (Hons.) and M.Phil in history at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, Alan completed a Ph.D. at the same institution. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and was the Parliamentary Candidate for the Conservative Party in the Brent Central Constituency for the 2015 General Election. He is also a Trustee of the President Reagan Memorial Fund Trust.
This photo is a property of http://kochan.co.uk/
Nick Kochan has extensive experience as an author and journalist in the fields of banking, management and forensic studies. His books on corruption, white collar crime and British politics have won acclaim. His biography of Gordon Brown, when he was UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, broke new ground. Brown subsequently became the British Prime Minister.
As a journalist, Kochan contributes to leading national newspapers and British and US magazines. These include The Economist, The Independent, The Financial Times, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, The Guardian, New Statesman, Euromoney magazine and others. He appears regularly on BBC TV and Sky TV as a political and economics pundit, commenting on banking issues, contemporary politics and finance.
He has addressed conferences hosted by The Economist magazine, the Financial Times, a number of government agencies in the field of law enforcement and private companies. Kochan’s book, ‘Corruption: The New Corporate Challenge’, has been hailed as an essential and pioneering analysis of the UK Bribery Act, and other corruption-related issues.
In 1990, Kochan researched a Despatches programme for Channel Four about the Guinness stock scandal. He researched a documentary on the collapse in 2008/9 of the Royal Bank of Scotland in the course of the economic crisis, for BBC television. Kochan interviewed 12 British businessmen for two series of six radio programmes about British entrepreneurs, for BBC Radio Four. These included the late Robert Maxwell.
Nick Kochan was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford and Fitzwilliam College, in the University of Cambridge. He has an honours degree in Classics and English.
Nick Kochan’s latest podcast with Marina Litvinenko is available HERE.
Dr. Alan Mendoza of The Henry Jackson Society was pleased to host a distinguished panel of experts to discuss the current state and prospects of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Nick Kochan opened the discussion with a statement arguing that Western vacillation and compromise in Syria, Crimea, and Georgia has allowed Russia to escalate its aggression to the point of a formal invasion, and that the bravery and resolve of the Ukrainian people has forced the West to finally acknowledge the threat Russia poses to the continent. Bill Browder agreed, stating that the government of Russia is essentially a criminal enterprise bound together by mutual incrimination and corruption. Browder argues that as an intrenched, but fundamentally unstable oligarchy Russia must pursue war as a means of placating internal political unrest, and that the only possible solution to the conflict is Ukrainian victory. Marina Litvinenko described how the West was unable to clearly assess the threat Russia posed due to its own economic relationships with the Putin regime, but that the invasion of Ukraine was a red line from which there will be no turning back to normal relations. The panellists agreed that while military assistance to Ukraine must be sufficient to repel the Russian advance, a real and lasting victory depends on the decoupling of Russia from western markets and the economic strangulation of the Russian Oligarchy.