Summary of the presentation on…
“Putin, Russia, Ukraine and the West” by Dr. George Kalbouss.
National Security Forum members were treated to an extraordinary examination of the new Russia that has emerged under Vladimir Putin by Professor George Kalbouss. Dr. Kalbouss addressed the topic of “Faith, Tsar and Fatherland—Putin’s Revolution Leads Russia Back to the 19th Century”, drawing on his extensive career as a professor of Slavic Languages and Literature at the Ohio State University.
Kalbouss drew attention to the historic roots of the Russian state and the intimate ties between Ukraine and Russia, the relative few times that Ukraine has existed as a separate entity, and the strategic importance to Moscow of this region—including the Crimea, now part of Russia and providing a long desired warm water port.
Although Putin spent his career in the Soviet KGB and was a member of the Communist Party, Kalbouss finds Vladimir Putin to more closely resemble a Tsar rather than a Commissar. He found considerable inspiration for Putin’s actions to lie substantially in ethnic ties, in ambitions and fears that characterized Tsarist Russia, and in the spiritual foundations laid by Russian writers from Dostoevsky to Soloviev.
A summary can’t do justice to his presentation. Please click here for Kalbouss’ PowerPoint which will provide a better appreciation of this fascinating discussion.