No other foreign country can match the depth of Germany’s historical interaction with Russia. Beginning in the 17th century up to the start of the First World War, Germans played a key role in Russia’s state administration and made extraordinary contributions to the development of its economy, science, culture and education and military systems. In his talk John Lough will give an overview of these deep historical connections between the two countries which, until the catastrophic events of the 20th century, were for the most part peaceful and mutually beneficial. John Lough will go on to describe how, following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Germany developed the closest relationship with Russia of any EU country, spanning business, education, politics, culture and sport. But he will explain how at the same time successive German governments misread Russian intentions and will describe the shock for German policy-makers when Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, which then Chancellor Scholz described as a “turning-point” (“Zeitenwende”) in European history. John Lough will finally take stock of the present position and consider the outlook for future German-Russian relations.
John Lough is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of Foreign Policy at the New Eurasian Strategies Centre. He studied German and Russian at Cambridge University and began his career as an analyst at the Soviet Studies (later Conflict Studies) Research Centre focusing on Soviet/Russian security policy. He spent six years with NATO and was the first Alliance representative to be based in Moscow, and gained direct experience of the Russian oil and gas industry at TNK-BP as a manager in the company’s international affairs team. Since 2009, John has been an Associate Fellow with the Russia & Eurasia Programme at Chatham House and has written extensively about Ukraine.
He is the author of Germany’s Russia Problem (Manchester University Press, 2021).