Keir Giles, Stephanie Baker and Mark Galeotti

Government adviser Keir Giles, academic Professor Mark Galeotti and journalist Stephanie Baker discuss the Russian threat and how to deal with Putin, including why Putin retains his stranglehold on power, the need for Europe to wake up on defence and the impacts of economic sanctions.

Giles has advised governments across the world on the Russian threat and is director of the Conflict Studies Research Centre. In Who Will Defend Europe? An Awakened Russia and a Sleeping Continent he says Europe has been outsourcing its defence to the United States for decades and now faces stark choices. Giles argues that Europe’s unwillingness to confront Russia has nurtured the threat and Putin’s ambition now puts the whole continent at risk.

Galeotti heads the Mayak Intelligence consultancy and is an honorary professor at University College London’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies. In Forged in War: A Military History of Russia from its Beginnings to Today he explains how war and insecurity, both real and perceived, have driven Russia’s destiny for centuries. He says the reasons for Putin retaining a stranglehold on power despite his ruinous invasion of Ukraine lie in an understanding of this history. Galeotti’s other books include Putin’s Wars.

Baker is a senior writer on the projects and investigations team at Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Business Week. In Punishing Putin: Inside the Global Economic War to Bring Down Russia she looks at how the economic war against Putin and Russia has unfolded, from the seizing of superyachts to manipulation of the global price of oil. Baker says the economic war is changing the face of global trade.