The Institute Of World Politics

About the Lecture: In 1991, Ukraine’s independence set the tombstone for the USSR, and the U.S. regained its global primacy. Where are we today? How is it possible that In 2004, a top American expert argued, “stop criticizing Putin and start helping him”? Or that In 2021, Ukraine was not even mentioned in the new administration’s Interim Global Security Guidelines? And what do our dealings with Moscow from the end of WWI through 1991 tell us? About the Speaker: Mr. Victor Rud practiced law for forty years and served as special counsel to a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Madrid Review Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Before the fall of the Soviet Union, he represented, in the West, Soviet dissidents persecuted by the KGB. Mr. Rud has spoken, domestically and internationally, before various audiences on issues bearing on U.S./Russian relations, including specifically Ukraine. Among them are the State Department, West Point, American University Kyiv, and the UN. His analysis and comment