Origins of the War with Sergei Radchenko

Описание: Origins of the War | Sergey Radchenko

What explains Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? When did the decision take shape? And how should historians approach a war that is still unfolding?

In this full-length conversation from the Kennan Institute’s Origins of the War series, historian Sergey Radchenko examines the deeper roots of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Drawing on his scholarship on the Cold War and international diplomacy, Radchenko situates the war within a longer historical arc that stretches back well before February 2022 and even before 2014.

The discussion explores:

• The legacy of the Cold War and whether it truly ended in 1991
• The rise of U.S.–Russian tensions in the early twenty-first century
• The chronology of the war and the question of when Putin made the decision to invade
• The challenges historians face when key documents remain classified
• The interaction between local Ukrainian perspectives and global geopolitical narratives
• Russian public sentiment and the role of state messaging
• The Prigozhin mutiny and internal regime dynamics
• Ukrainian identity and nationalism as factors in the conflict
• The possibility of the war expanding beyond Ukraine

Radchenko emphasizes that Putin’s motivations cannot be reduced to a single cause. Instead, he offers a multi-causal framework that considers history, security concerns, ideology, identity, and strategic timing. The conversation also reflects on how historians interpret contemporary events while they are still in motion.

This episode is part of Origins of the War, a Kennan Institute series dedicated to examining the historical and evidentiary foundations of Russia’s war against Ukraine through rigorous analysis and informed debate.

Watch the full discussion to better understand how past and present intersect in one of the defining geopolitical crises of our time.

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