USP – Conférence : "Russie la crise de la dictature de Poutine"

The political, economic, and human cost of the war is very high for the Russian Federation and its inhabitants, who have been living in a war economy since the attack on Ukraine. Why then did the Kremlin leader launch his country into this terribly murderous war, with unrealistic objectives? What are the reasons for this exacerbated revanchism against the Ukrainians? Is this war part of a historical trajectory, which nothing could have deviated from for decades? By waging an unwinnable war against Ukraine, is Putin not locking the Russians into a major confrontation with Europe, North America, and Japan, dragging his country into the abyss?

Marie Mendras is a political scientist. A researcher at the CNRS and the Center for International Studies and Research, she is also a professor at Sciences Po, where she teaches Russian foreign policy at the Paris School of International Affairs. She is also a member of the editorial board of the journals Esprit and Pro et contra (Moscow), a board member of the US-Russia Center in Brussels and the Institute of Law and Public Policy in Moscow. An award-winning author of several books, she published the essay Permanent War: The Kremlin's Ultimate Strategy (Paris: Calmann-Lévy) in 2024.