“Vladimir Putin is determined to shape the future to look like his version of the past. Russia’s president invaded Ukraine not because he felt threatened by NATO expansion or by Western ‘provocations, but because he believes that it is Russia’s divine right to rule Ukraine, to wipe out the country’s national identity, and to integrate its people into a Greater Russia,” according to speakers, Dr. Fiona Hill and Prof. Angela Stent, who assert that Putin’s narratives are “a potent political weapon” that “underpin his legitimacy.” Their joint panel will highlight the mindset and world view that unleashed—and continues to pursue—Europe’s most brutal and prolonged war since the end of World War II.

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Fiona Hill is a senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. She recently served as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council from 2017 to 2019. From 2006 to 2009, she served as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at The National Intelligence Council. She is author of “There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century” and co-author of “Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin” (Brookings Institution Press, 2015).

Angela Stent is senior adviser to the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies and professor emerita of government and foreign service at Georgetown University. She is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-chairs its Hewett Forum on Post-Soviet Affairs. From 2004-06 she served as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council. Her books include “The Limits of Partnership: US-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century” (Princeton University Press, 2014) and “Putin’s World: Russia Against the West and With the Rest” (Twelve Books, 2019).