Weber: Political Economy of Russian Power
Date: July 18th at 17:00 CET / 11:00 EDT Platform: Cisco Webex Webinars
Link to Video Recording
Link to Video Recording -- Passcode: RSIvideo2023
Details
RSI will host Yuval Weber, Alexandra Vacroux, and Robert Otto to discuss the Russian economy. The panel will highlight academic work on the political and economic aspects of Russia and discuss what role it plays for the Russian State.
Biographies
Yuval Weber
Title: Subject-Matter Expert on Russian Military and Political Strategy Affiliation: National Intelligence University
Yuval Weber, PhD, is a Subject-Matter Expert on Russian Military and Political Strategy at the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation and Future Warfare at Marine Corps University in Quantico, VA. He also serves as Research Assistant Professor at Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service in Washington, DC.
Dr. Weber has also taught or researched at the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Harvard University, and the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia. He is the author of a recently released book entitled The Russian Economy, which examines the tension between demands of economic modernization and the security state in Russia's political economy dating back to Tsarist times.
Alexandra Vacroux
Title: Executive Director Affiliation: Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
Dr. Alexandra Vacroux is Executive Director of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. Her scholarly work addresses Russian and Eurasian policy issues, including the war in Ukraine. As Director of Graduate Studies for the Davis Center’s MA program in regional studies, she has mentored dozens of Harvard’s best and brightest students and regional experts.
Prior to joining the Davis Center in 2010, she lived in Washington, DC, where she was a Scholar at the Kennan Institute, part of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She holds a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University.
Robert Otto
Title: Advisor-Director of Russian Affairs Affiliation: State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research
Robert Otto received his Ph.D. in Russian history at the University of Wisconsin in 1983. He served in the US Intelligence Community over a 30-year period during which he worked on a variety of Soviet and then Russia-related topics. These included the Soviet defense industry, leadership politics during the Yeltsin and Putin periods, and the Russian security services.
He has served as a consultant for many published works. After retiring in 2020 as the State Department’s Senior Intelligence Officer for Russian Affairs at the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), he returned to INR as an adviser to the Office Director for Russian Affairs in 2022.