(Mis)understanding Russia: A Diplomat's Reflections
Date: Thursday, November 16th, 2023
Time: 4-6 pm, Toronto time
Location: Online via Zoom
The Bill Graham Centre presents a Zoom event.
Can history help us to understand the disastrous state of Russia’s relations with the West in 2023? Leigh Sarty suggests that it can, drawing on his experience as a student, a scholar, and a diplomat over more than four decades to describe some of the key turning points and deeper structural forces that make contemporary Putinism more intelligible.
About the Speaker
Leigh Sarty is a former diplomat who spent the better part of his career dealing with Russia, including two postings at the Canadian Embassy in Moscow (1996-1999; 2012-2016). A Russian speaker who holds an M.A. from Carleton’s Institute of Soviet and East European Studies (1985) and a Ph.D. from Columbia University (1991), Sarty is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies and a Senior Fellow at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University, and a Senior Fellow at the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History.