This event presented the forthcoming book Russian Sharp Power in Action: The Case of Latvia. The study analyzes how Russia uses sharp power against Latvia.. Russian public diplomacy, compatriot policy, media policy, propaganda, and disinformation produce a destructive effect, distorting the democracies of target countries and increasing national security risks. The war in Ukraine has further underscored the danger of Russia’s sharp power, because before the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its large-scale invasion in 2022, Russia used the same tools to influence public opinion in Ukraine that it has used in Latvia and the other Baltic states for many years. Latvia has been a member of NATO and the EU since 2004, and together with Lithuania and Estonia is considered an Eastern frontline country of European democracy and security. The study of Latvia’s case will help to better understand the nature of Russia’s sharp power, which in turn will allow us to deal more effectively with the problem of the vulnerability of European countries.
Speaker:
Andis Kudors (PhD candidate) is a visiting scholar at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at GW’s Elliott School of International Affairs. From 2006 to 2019, Mr. Kudors was the Executive Director of the Centre for East European Policy Studies. He has published many analytical articles about Russian foreign policy and Latvian security. He is the editor of several books, including Fortress Russia: Political, Economic, and Security Development in Russia following the Annexation of Crimea and its Consequences for the Baltic States (2016), and The War in Syria: Lessons for the West (2016). He has been a member of the Foreign Policy Council at the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2011 and was a Fulbright scholar at the Kennan Institute (Woodrow Wilson Center) in Washington DC from 2014 to 2015. In 2021, Andis Kudors was appointed Commander of The Cross of Recognition by the President of the Republic of Latvia Egils Levits for his contribution to the research of Latvian national security.
Moderator:
Robert Orttung is a Research Professor at IERES and the Director of Research for Sustainable GW. He is editor of Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Demokratization and co-editor of the Russian Analytical Digest. His research focuses on issues of urban sustainability in the Arctic.