We are deeply honoured that Sir Malcolm Rifkind KCMG KC, one of Great Britain-Russia Society’s Honorary Vice-Presidents, has kindly agreed to deliver this year’s Daniel Salbstein Memorial Lecture. This is the third in this series of Memorial Lectures dedicated to the memory of our principal founder and former Chairman and Talks Organiser, Daniel Salbstein OBE (1937-2020), in recognition of his unique role in the creation and development of the Society.
The title of Sir Malcolm’s talk is Russia’s Place in the World – Past, Present and Future. Sir Malcolm will devote part of his talk to an examination of the UK-Russia relationship and in the course of this will describe his own involvement in the first Thatcher-Gorbachev meeting at Chequers in December 1986 and the wider significance of this meeting. He will also comment on the current situation in Russia; on whatever will have happened by September 2023 in regard to the invasion of Ukraine; and on wider issues such as Russia’s difficulty in coming to terms with the ending of Europe’s last empire.
This will be a wonderful opportunity to hear from a most distinguished political figure and excellent speaker, who has had dealings with Russia at the very highest level in government and who will be able to provide his assessment of the current situation from his own informed perspective.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind was educated at George Watson’s College and the University of Edinburgh, where he studied law before taking a postgraduate degree in political science. He was called to the Scottish Bar in 1970 and practised full-time as an Advocate until 1974. He was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 1985 and a member of the Privy Council in 1980. He was the MP for Edinburgh Pentlands from 1974 to 1997 and then for Kensington and Chelsea from 2010 to 2015. He served in the Cabinets of Margaret Thatcher and John Major from 1986 to 1997, serving first as Secretary of State for Scotland and Secretary of State for Transport and then as Secretary of State for Defence (1992-1995) and Foreign Secretary (1995-1997).
He subsequently served as Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament from 2010 to 2015. In January 2015 he was appointed by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) as a member of their Eminent Persons Panel on European Security. In December 2015, he was appointed a Visiting Professor by King's College, London in their Department of War Studies. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). In July 2016, his memoirs, Power and Pragmatism, The Memoirs of Malcolm Rifkind, were published (by Biteback Publishing).
Sir Malcolm has a longstanding interest in the UK’s relations with Eastern Europe. As Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office at the time, he was present at the historic first meeting between Mikhail Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher at Chequers in December 1984, when Mrs Thatcher decided that Gorbachev was a Soviet leader with whom she “could do business”. As Secretary of State for Defence, in 1992 one of Sir Malcolm’s first overseas visits was to Kyiv, capital of the newly independent Ukraine. He wrote in 1994 that “Russia without Ukraine … is not and is unlikely again to become a global superpower”.
In March 2014 Sir Malcolm spoke out against Russia’s annexation of Crimea and aggressive and destabilising actions in parts of eastern Ukraine. He also called for tougher sanctions by Western nations. When this strong criticism of Russia’s actions led to him being banned from Russia, he responded, “If there had to be a list of people banned by Putin, I am proud to be one of them.”
Tickets are £5 each for non-members. Members, please click here to log in to your account to order your free ticket. The discount will be applied automatically.