We are delighted to welcome back to GSF leading Russia expert, Professor Mark Galeotti, whose most recent books include Downfall: Prigozhin, Putin And The New Fight For The Future Of Russia (Ebury, 2024, with Anna Arutunyan), and Forged in War: A Military History Of Russia From Its Beginnings To Today (Bloomsbury, 2024).
He will give us his views on ‘The Putin/Trump Era: What Next For Russia, Ukraine & The World?’ in an event chaired by GSF Advisory Board member and former Chief of the Defence Staff (2006-2010), Lord Stirrup KG GCB AFC.
When: Wednesday 26th February 2025 (1pm-2pm; buffet lunch from 12.30)
Attendance: By invitation only
February 24th will mark three years since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, simultaneously upending European security and roiling global geopolitics. A grinding war of attrition has since ensued, with both sides digging in for the long haul. Russian forces have waged a relentless offensive on Ukraine’s eastern front, while Ukraine has made inroads into the Kursk region of Russia.
But with the re-election of Donald Trump to the White House, an endgame for the conflict might finally be in sight. On the campaign trail, Trump famously vowed to end the war in a day. But in office and faced with the harsh realities of the conflict, the new administration has backed away from a firm timeline for a peace deal, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio warning of the ‘hard diplomacy’ and ‘tough work’ which will be needed. Nevertheless, for the first time since the spring of 2022, a serious effort is underway to broker a peace solution, while Trump’s recent threat of further sanctions on Russia if Vladimir Putin does not end the ‘ridiculous’ war and ‘make a deal’ hints at a more balanced US approach to mediation, which might not be as damaging to Ukraine as many commentators initially feared.
All eyes are now on the unpredictable relationship between the new US President and his Russian counterpart, and how it will impact the Ukraine war and Russia’s standing, as well as the broader issues of European and global security. As Mark Galeotti puts it, in this new era of personality politics, ‘the direction of world affairs seems dependent on how well these two men can get along – or, at the very least, understand each other’.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY
PROFESSOR MARK GALEOTTI is one of the world’s leading experts on Russian politics, crime and security (which are often one and the same), which may explain why Moscow banned him in 2022. As well as running the Russia-focused consultancy Mayak Intelligence, he is an Honorary Professor at UCL and a Senior Associate Fellow with both RUSI and the Council on Geostrategy. He has written more than 30 books, including The Vory: Russia’s Super Mafia (Yale, 2018), Russian Political War(Routledge, 2019), We Need To Talk About Putin (Ebury, 2019), The Weaponisation Of Everything (YUP, 2022), Putin’s Wars (Bloomsbury, 2023), Downfall: Prigozhin, Putin And The New Fight For The Future Of Russia (Ebury, 2024, with Anna Arutunyan), and Forged in War: A Military History Of Russia From Its Beginnings To Today (Bloomsbury, 2024). He read history at Robinson College, Cambridge, and took his doctorate in politics at the LSE. He has been Head of History at Keele University, Professor of Global Affairs at New York University, a visiting professor at Rutgers-Newark (Newark), Charles University (Prague) and MGIMO (Moscow), and a senior research fellow at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. He has advised and given evidence to a wide range of bodies, from the UK House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly to Interpol and SHAPE.