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The Russia-Ukraine Crisis with Owen Matthews and Radek Sikorski

A discussion on the biggest crisis Europe has faced since the Second World War

The future of European security is being decided now, here in Ukraine.’ These were the words of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last Wednesday, before Russia launched an all-out assault on Ukraine, sending tanks and fighter jets deep into the country and forcing thousands of Ukrainians to flee their homes. Intelligence Squared brought together journalist and Russia expert Owen Matthews and Radek Sikorski, former foreign minister of Poland, for a discussion on the biggest crisis Europe has faced since the Second World War. In conversation with investigative reporter Manveen Rana, Matthews and Sikorksi will explain the background to the crisis and answer your questions: What does Putin want? Can sanctions play any role now in de-escalating the crisis or will they just hurt the countries that depend on Russian imports? And what are the implications of Russia’s attack for the Baltic states, for the rest of the region – and for the world?


Speakers

Speakers

Owen Matthews

Russian expert and former war correspondent


Russian expert and author of two highly praised works of non-fiction, Stalin's Children and An Impeccable Spy, as well as two acclaimed thrillers, Black Sun and Red Traitor. As a war correspondent, he covered conflicts in Bosnia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq and Ukraine, and for ten years he was Newsweek's Moscow bureau chief. 

Radek Sikorski

Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2007-2014


Member of the European Parliament for Poland, sitting on Committees for Foreign Affairs, the Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence and the Security and Defence Subcommittee. He is the Chairman of the Delegation for relations with the United States. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard and Distinguished Statesman at CSIS in Washington D.C. He was Poland’s Minister of Defence (2005-2007), Foreign Minister (2007-2014) and Speaker of Parliament (2014-2015). He served as a war reporter in Afghanistan and Angola. In 2001-2005 he was Resident Scholar at AEI and director of its New Atlantic Initiative. Together with Carl Bildt, he launched EU’s Eastern Partnership. He proposed and helped to set up the European Endowment for Democracy. In 2014 he led the EU mission to Kiev, which stopped the bloodshed on the Maidan. Foreign Policy magazine named him one of 100 global policy intellectuals ‘for speaking the truth even when it’s not diplomatic.’  He is the author of several books, most recently ‘Polska Może Być Lepsza.’
Chair

Manveen Rana

Senior investigative journalist and host of The Times and Sunday Times flagship podcast Stories of Our Times


Senior investigative journalist and host of The Times and Sunday Times flagship podcast Stories of Our Times. She was previously a broadcaster and reporter for BBC Radio 4's The Today Programme and The World at One.