Berkeley Talks: UC Berkeley experts on the invasion of Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine was an avoidable tragedy, agreed UC Berkeley political scientist George Breslauer and Berkeley economics professor Yuriy Gorodnichenko
February 28, 2022
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The Motherland Monument in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Photo by Rostislav Artov via Unsplash)
In episode 135 of Berkeley Talks, UC Berkeley political scientist George Breslauer and economics professor Yuriy Gorodnichenko discuss Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine — what his motivations are and how they compare to Adolf Hitler’s and Joseph Stalin’s, if the invasion was avoidable and what should be done about it.
“This could have been avoided,” said Breslauer, professor emeritus of political science and author of the 2021 book, The Rise and Demise of World Communism, at the Feb. 25 event. “Putin has now shown his worst instincts. He has shown his dark side, taking no prisoners in this attack on Ukraine. I just hope that he is retrievable toward a diplomatic compromise that calls for no Ukraine in NATO and no ceding to the Russian sphere of influence, formal neutralization. But we’ll see if that is even possible in light of what’s going on now.”
This talk was sponsored by UC Berkeley’s Osher Lifelong Learning Center (OLLI). Watch a video of this talk on OLLI’s YouTube page.
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