Public lecture on Putin and Russian authoritarianism opens IARCEES conference
A public lecture on Vladimir Putin and authoritarianism in Russia by King’s College London’s Dr. Samuel Greene opens the Irish Association for Russian, Central and East European Studies at All Hallows campus in DCU on Thursday May 9th.
Dr. Greene’s lecture looks at and challenges the conventional narratives about Russian politics and authoritarianism, arguing that although strong-man leaders like Putin enjoy a number of important structural advantages, the established top-down approach misses important truths about how power works in Russia and in contemporary autocracies more broadly. He contends that Russia’s leader is powerful not despite the Russian people, but in large part because of them.
Drawing on material from his new book, Putin v the People: The Perilous Politics of a Divided Russia (written with Graeme Robertson), Dr. Greene will speak about the ways in which social, psychological and ideational factors have come together in recent years to construct what we know as Putinism, making the people simultaneously the source of Putin’s power and the greatest threat he faces.
IARCEES Conference
Dr. Greene’s lecture opens a three-day conference organised by the Irish Association for Russian, Central and East European studies, with the support of the Dublin City University School of History and Geography and the Dublin City University School of Communications.
The theme of the conference is State and Non-state Actors in Eastern and Central Europe: Past, Present and Future and by choosing this topic, the conference organisers wish to explore the nature of and relationship between the different kinds of actors in the region and the way in which state and non-state actors, both institutions and individual, have shaped the politics, history, and culture of states within the region throughout the years. The papers selected for the final programme represent a broad spectrum of the interdisciplinary state-of-the-art, covering politics, culture, history, economics, media and gender; liberal, illiberal, and authoritarian systems of government; issues of languages, minorities and border policies.
Event details
Russia’s Putin: The Co-Construction of Russian Authoritarianism
IARCEES 2019 Public Keynote Lecture by Dr. Samuel Greene, King’s Russia Institute, King’s College London
John Hand Room, Senior House, DCU All Hallows campus
4pm, Thursday May 9th 2019
Full details of the conference (which runs May 9th - 11th) are available here.
Dr. Greene’s keynote address is free for members of the public. Anyone wishing to attend the entire conference can register here.
About Dr. Greene
Dr Samuel Greene is Reader in Russian politics and director of the Russia Institute at King’s College London. His most recent book, Putin v. the People: The Perilous Politics of a Divided Russia (co-authored with Graeme Robertson), was published in April 2019, and it explores the changing relationship between the Kremlin and Russian citizens since the annexation of Crimea. Prior to joining King’s in 2012, he was Director of the Center for the Study of New Media & Society at the New Economic School (Moscow) and Deputy Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center.