• Co host: Beazley
• Date: 24 March 2021
• Time: 14:00 - 15:00 Check your timezone here.     https://everytimezone.com/s/e2e5d643
• Speakers: Nikolai Petrov and Dr Richard Connolly

President Gorbachev's late-1980s perestroika — starting changes in order to improve the system but then losing control — used to be Vladimir Putin's worst nightmare but he now appears to be following in Gorbachev’s shoes.

Putin’s political transformation, started in January 2020, aimed to keep him in power beyond 2024 when his third presidential term ends. It was more or less going as initially planned - despite the oil price collapse and COVID-19 pandemic - until: the unsuccessful attempt to poison the country’s most visible opposition politician, Alexei Navalny; his escape to the West but subsequent return; and the resultant anti-Putin mass protests that followed. Although they were brutally suppressed by the siloviki, Putin’s legitimacy has started to erode which has put the system at existential risk and makes him a poisoned asset rather than a base for stability.

The briefing will address:

• Domestic politics 
• Political elite, its renewal and evolving design
• Siloviki and their role
• Centre-regions relationship
• Foreign policy implications
• Future scenarios
• Russia’s macro-economy
• International sanctions

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