Russia Seminar 2023 Programme

Below you can find the programme for the upcoming Russia seminar on February 15-16th. The event will be streamed on YouTube live at the following address: https://www.youtube.com/c/Maanpuolustuskorkeakoulu/

Russia’s war on Ukraine: strategic and operational designs and implementation

Day 1: Wednesday 15th February 2023

09.00	Welcome and Admin remarks	Simo Pesu (FNDU)
09.10 – 09.20	Opening words	Rector of FNDU
09.20 – 09.30	Introduction to the theme of Russia Seminar 2023	Pentti Forsström (FNDU)
09.30 – 10.00	Keynote 1: Russian Art of Coercion: A Post-War Transformation of Deterence and Compellence	Dima Adamsky (Reichman University, Israel)
	Session 1: Aspects on Art of War	Moderator: Pentti Forsström
10.00 – 10.30	An Assessment of Russia’s Way of War in the Wake of its Aggression in Ukraine	Dumitru Minzarari (Baltic Defence College)
10.30 – 11.00	Evolution of Russian Operational Concept Development	Clint Reach (RAND)
11.00 – 11.30	The role of space assets in Russia’s war in Ukraine: an appraisal	Rod Thornton and Marina Miron (King’s College, UK)
11.30 – 12.00	Panel
12.00 – 13.00	Lunch break
	Parallel sessions
	Session 2: Non-kinetic aspects	Session 3: Justifying aspects
	Moderator: Simo Pesu	Moderator: Katri Pynnöniemi
13.00 – 13.30	Russian asymmetric, indirect, and non-military methods in the context of Russia’s war on Ukraine – theoretical ambivalence and practical complications   Juha Kukkola (Finnish Defence Forces)	The equalization of nationalism and Nazism in Russian strategic narratives: a postcolonial perspective   Ieva Berzina (National Defence Academy of Latvia)
13.30 – 14.00	Russian Tactical PSYOPS in Ukraine – do they play by Soviet handbook?   Ivo Juurvee (ICDS)	Creating an enemy: denazification in the contemporary military strategy of the Russian Federation   Marzia Cimmino (FNDU)
14.00 – 14.30	Observations of the Russian Cyberwarfare during the Ukrainian War   Juha Wihersaari (FNDU)	Strategic objectives of Russia’s attack in relation to Kremlin’s political rhetoric during 2022   Santeri Kytöneva (FNDU)
14.30 – 15.00	Discussion
15.00 – 15.30	Coffee break
	Session 4: Operational assessments	Session 5: Maritime aspects
	Moderator: Jukka Viitaniemi	Moderator: Iiro Penttilä
15.30 – 16.00	Russian Military Performance in the Russo-Ukrainian War   Michael Kofman (CNA)	Russian operation against maritime communication: main conclusions and lessons from the experience of protecting the economic activities of the state at sea in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war   Yevhenii Vdovytskyi (National Defence University of Ukraine)
16.00 – 16.30	Comparing Russo-Ukrainian war and Second Karabakh war: performance and failures   Leonid Nersisyan and Cerwyn Moore (APRI, University of Birmingham)	Russian strategy and operational art in the war against Ukraine at sea: lessons learned, trends and prospects   Stepan Yakymiak (National Defence University of Ukraine)
16.30 – 17.00	Understanding the Russian ‘Way of War’? Western estimates of Russian military power and the War in Ukraine (ZOOM)   Bettina Renz (University of Nottingham)	The Maritime Dimension of Russia’s War Against Ukraine (ZOOM)   Stephen Blank (Foreign Policy Research Institute)
17.00 – 17.30	Panel

Day 2: Thursday 16th February 2023

08.30 – 09.00	Coffee
	Moderator: Pentti Forsström
09.00 – 09.30	Keynote 2: Military-political and military-strategic situation around Black Sea and Caspian Sea Region (TBC)	Andrei Gritsenko (National Defence University of Ukraine)
09.30 – 09.45	Break
	Session 6: External and future aspects	Session 7: Societal aspects
		Moderator: Katri Pynnöniemi
9.45 – 10.15	Russia’s Wartime Military Diplomacy with the Countries of the ‘Global South’: Drivers and Implications   Ivan U. K. Klyszcz (ICDS)	How Russian Patriotic Education Was Changed to Support War: Military Masculinity as a Hegemonic Discourse and Practices of Resistance   Jonna Alava (FNDU)
10.15 – 10.45	Countering the Russian invasion strategy in Ukraine: conceptions and capabilities   Valеrii Hordiichuk, Andrii Ivashchenko and Nina Andriianova (TBC) (National Defence University of Ukraine)	Military-political education in Russian Armed Forces   Aleksander Malinen (University of Helsinki)
10.45 – 11.15	Prolonged Wars in the 21st Century: Sustaining and Adapting Over a Long Conflict   Marc R. DeVore and Kristen Harkness (University of St. Andrews)	Support for war of aggression in Russia   Eemil Mitikka (University of Helsinki)
11.15 – 11.45	Panel
11.45 – 12.00	Closing words	Colonel Pekka Turunen (FNDU)