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<TITLE>3/22 - Power, Petroleum, and Flawed Succession: The Roots and Impact of Putin's Russia</TITLE>
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<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><FONT SIZE="4"><FONT FACE="Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:16.0px'><B>Ford Hall Forum Free Public Lecture <BR>
Discussion Series presents<BR>
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<B>Power, Petroleum, and Flawed Succession: <BR>
The Roots and Impact of Putin’s Russia<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">with<BR>
<B>Marshall Goldman</B> and <B>Uri Ra’anan<BR>
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</SPAN><FONT SIZE="4"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:16.0px'>Thursday, March 22, at 6:30-8:00 pm<BR>
at the<BR>
Old South Meeting House <BR>
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<B>-FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC-
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</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:13.0px'>Russia is reemerging as an international power — as strong as in czarist or Soviet times — and President Vladimir Putin shows troubling tendencies of reverting to authoritarian and imperial habits. Russia recently overtook Saudi Arabia as the world’s leading producer of oil, and it has demonstrated a clear willingness to flex this muscle on the world stage. Within its own borders, corruption, contract killing, and media censorship have become routine. <BR>
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Should we regard this nation as a threat to the West, or as an ally? How does its use of energy supplies as an instrument of foreign policy affect global markets? In a country that historically lacks a mechanism for legitimate succession, what should we expect as Putin steps down in 2008? <BR>
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<B>Marshall Goldman</B>, Katherine Wasserman Davis Professor of Russian Economics at Wellesley College (Emeritus) and associate director of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, and <B>Uri Ra’anan</B>, director of the Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology, and Policy and professor of international relations at Boston University, will explore the impact of the Kremlin’s concentrated political power in an age of booming oil and gas wealth.<BR>
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<SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'><FONT FACE="Arial"><U>Come join the conversation.<BR>
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<B><U>Additional background information<BR>
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</U>Marshall I. Goldman</B> is Kathryn Wasserman Davis Professor of Russian Economics (Emeritus) at Wellesley College. An expert on the Russian economy and the economics of high technology, he joined the Wellesley faculty in 1958. In 1998, the Wellesley College Alumnae Association awarded him its first Faculty Service Award. He is also Associate Director of the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University.<BR>
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An internationally recognized authority on Russian economics, politics, and environmental policy, Professor Goldman is known for his study and analysis of the careers of Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. He is the author of over a dozen books on the former Soviet Union. His most recent book is titled<I> The Piratization of Russia: Russian Reform Goes Awry (Rutledge, 2003)</I>.<BR>
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A frequent visitor to the republics of the former Soviet Union, Professor Goldman was present during the August, 1991, coup attempt. He has met with Mikhail Gorbachev, Vladimir Putin, former President George Bush, and President George W. Bush and continues to meet regularly with business leaders, diplomats, and government officials at the highest levels in both countries.<BR>
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<B>Uri Ra’anan</B> is the Director of the Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology, and Policy; Professor of International Relations at Boston University; and Associate of the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University.<BR>
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Professor Ra'anan taught at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University for more than two decades, where he was Professor of International Politics and Director or the International Security Studies Program. He has also taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and the City University of New York. He is that author, co-author, editor, and co-editor of 25 books and contributor to 19 others, primarily on Soviet Affairs, his latest publications include: <I>Flawed Succession: Russia's Perennial Crisis </I>(2005), <I>Russia: A Return to Imperialism</I> (1995), <I>Russian Pluralism -- Now Irreversible?</I> (1992), <I>State and Nation in Multi-ethnic Societies</I> (1991), <I>Inside the Apparat: Perspectives on the Soviet Union</I> (1990), <I>Gorbachev's USSR: A System in Crisis</I> (1990), and <I>The Soviet Empire and the Challenge of National and Democratic Movements</I> (1990). In addition to his book-length works, he has published extensively in both scholarly journals and general readership newspapers, including the <I>Slavic Review</I>, <I>Strategic Review</I>, <I>Global Affairs</I>, <I>Soviet Analyst,</I> the <I>Boston Globe</I>, and the <I>Boston Herald</I>. His current research work focuses on the reassertion of Russian power in the post-Soviet arena.<BR>
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