- Mark Leonard (Executive Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, author of Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century and What Does China Think?)
- Edward Lucas (The Economist, author of The New Cold War)
- Owen Matthews (journalist, author of Orwell Prize-shortlisted Stalin’s Children)
- Dr Alex Pravda (University of Oxford)
- Chaired by John Lloyd (Financial Times, University of Oxford Reuters Institute)
The ninth and last of the Orwell Prize’s events at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2009.
British relations with Russia are at their lowest ebb since the Cold War. Alexander Litvinenko and polonium, the British Ambassador and ‘Putin Youth’, espionage, Georgia, and gas supply have all been recent sources of tension. (At the same time, Russian oligarchs are becoming more visible in British life, from football to Fleet Street.) But to what extent is this deterioration the fault of the West? Is there a new Cold War brewing? And is Russia a threat – or is it threatened?