The invasion of Ukraine has acted as a tipping point in the West's relationship with Putin's Russia, with tragic consequences for those on the ground, and far-reaching repercussions on global supply chains, finances and geopolitics. But what are the roots of this current crisis, and were we always destined to reach this stand-off again, thirty years after the end of The Cold War? And what do ordinary Russians feel about their country today, and their futures, both individually and collectively?
Join Joshua Yaffa, the winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2021 for his book Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin's Russia, and Catherine Belton, author of Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West, for a wide-ranging conversation on these issues and more.
The event is a part of the Orwell Festival organised by the Orwell Foundation.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Catherine Belton reports on Russia for the Washington Post and is the former Moscow Correspondent for the Financial Times. She has previously reported on Russia for the Moscow Times, Business Week and Reuters. In 2008, she was shortlisted for Business Journalist of the year at the British Press Awards. She lives in London. Her first book, Putin’s People, published by William Collins in 2020, was a Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller, and a Times, Sunday Times, and Telegraph Book of the Year. It was shortlisted for the 2021 Pushkin House Russian Book Prize.
Joshua Yaffa is a contributing writer for The New Yorker. He is also the author of Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia, which won the Orwell Prize in 2021.He has also written for the Economist, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Bloomberg Businessweek, The New Republic, and Foreign Affairs. For his work in Russia, he has been named a fellow at New America, a recipient of the American Academy’s Berlin Prize, and a finalist for the Livingston Award. He is originally from San Diego, California.