Lecture: Understanding Russia Today

Alumni and guests are invited to join the Norfolk Cambridge Society for their fourteenth public lecture, with guest speaker Dr Bridget Kendall Understanding Russia Today.

At the end of February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin shocked the world by ordering a military invasion of Ukraine. It triggered an international crisis and activated a confrontation between Russia on the one hand and Ukraine and its NATO backers on the other, plunging the world into a dangerous conflict on several fronts. Drawing on decades of experience living in and reporting on Russia, as well as close-up contact with President Putin and his entourage, Bridget Kendall, former BBC correspondent and Master of Peterhouse Cambridge, assesses the current state of the crisis and what it tells us about Russia today.

Dr Kendall conducted two long interviews with President Vladimir Putin in 2001 and 2006, both broadcast live to the world from inside the Kremlin. Prior to that, she was BBC Moscow correspondent from 1989 to 1994, covering the final years of the Soviet Union and the first years of post-Soviet Russia, and BBC Washington correspondent from 1994 to 1998 during the Clinton Presidency. From 1998 to 2016 she held the senior role of BBC Diplomatic correspondent, reporting on major global trends and crises, and analysing their impact on Britain and the world.

Her interviews with international leaders included British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, US President George H Bush, Hillary Clinton, King Abdullah of Jordan, President Yushchenko of Ukraine, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia. This will be an exceptional opportunity to hear the views of a leading expert on Russia and international affairs.

Booking information:

If you have any questions please contact Geoffrey Smart.

Price:

£15.00, £10.00 for seniors and £5.00 for sixth formers and their parents or teachers