Russia’s Propaganda has reached The White House How Putin weaponizes history and narratives to justify warThis week, I sat down with two experts who understand exactly how narratives shape war, attention, and global instability. Olena Snigyr from Ukraine and Salvador Lima from Argentina joined me to discuss how Russia manipulates narratives to justify its expansionist and totalitarian policies. After this conversation, I am more convinced than ever: the battle for Ukraine is the battle for liberal values and the international rule of law.
Meet the guests My first guest is
Olena Snigyr. She is a Jean Monnet Fellow at the EUI’s Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies. She is from Ukraine, and she is an expert on Russian foreign policy, European Security, and the role of narratives in international relations. You can find her on
LinkedIn.
My second guest is from Argentina, his name is
Salvador Lima. He is a PhD-researcher at the EUI, and specializes in the study of empires, war history and colonialism. His PhD is on French and Spanish Foreign Legions in the Interwar Period, 1919-1939. Find him on
LinkedIn here. Recommendation of the WeekWith two guests, what else could I expect than an extensive list of recommendations! Olena and Salvador gave their favourite authors and sources to learn more about Ukraine, narrative wars and Russia’s foreign policy.
- To stay updated on the events in the Russo-Ukrainian war, read and follow the Kiev Independent, the English-language media outlet from Ukraine.
- Serhii Plokhii, Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University and the Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute.
- Timothy Snyder, one of the most famous historians of the world who has published numerous works on Freedom, Totalitarianism and on Ukraine specifically. He now is running a lot of projects on Ukrainian, and regularly writes about the country’s fight for freedom in his Substack newsletter.
- Mikhail Suslov has just published a new book: “Putinism – Post-Soviet Russian Regime Ideology” - in which he answers the question “What is Putin’s ideology?”
- The work of sociologist Lev Gudkov, who defined the system of Putin’s Russia as “recurring totalitarianism”: Recurrent totalitarianism and Russia’s conservative shift. The author lives in exile in Vienna, now.
I hope you enjoy this episode. As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Saluti,
Vincent
