Since the Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine in 2014, Russian geopolitical discourse and its foreign policy activities have had much to do with what is sometimes called the "Putin Paradox." On the one hand, President Putin has unequivocally stressed that Ukrainians and Russians are one people sharing the same political culture-which implies above all the acceptance of centralized governance and the infallibility of authority. On the other hand, Ukraine has historically been a land of free-thinking individuals who dare to challenge political realities. The Euromaidan, widely known domestically as the Revolution of Dignity, was one such challenge. Putin seems to believe that Ukrainian protests against corrupt government are Western-orchestrated, while they are in fact manifestations of an indigenous movement. Putin, however, acts as though Ukraine was under the control of the West, and Dr. Kushnir's lecture will analyze contemporary Russian geopolitical discourse from this perspective.
Dr. Ostap Kushnir is an assistant professor and deputy dean in the Faculty of Economics and Management at Lazarski University in Warsaw. His academic interests include boundary-forming processes in Central and Eastern Europe. He has contributed to a number of books on regional politics and authored over twenty articles. He holds degrees from Mechnikov National University in Odesa (BA and MA), the University of Wales in Cardiff (MA), and Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (PhD). He is a member of the editorial board of the Central European Journal of International and Security Studies.