The House That Putin Built (Leon Aron)

With a deep historical knowledge and experience of Russia’s politics, governance, culture, and relations with the U.S., Dr. Leon Aron (Senior Fellow - American Enterprise Institute) presents a talk titled “The House That Putin Built” that outlines Vladimir Putin’s ideology, uses of propaganda, and the public images he has created of himself for the Russian public often based on Putin’s perceptions of Russian nationalism and history. Dr. Aron thoroughly guides us through a history of how his strategies and presentation to the public have occurred over the past two decades and how this relates to the Russian public’s perceptions of geopolitical decline since the 1990s, notions of nationalism and Russian “civilization” and Russian expansion, and solidarity during times of war and conflict. Concluding his talk, Dr. Aron fields questions from the host and faculty and staff regarding how Russia has begun transforming towards a fuller version of autocracy and away from a mere “informational autocracy” since the beginning of the Russia Ukraine War, the status and punishment of dissidents under the Putin regime and since the War began, and how Russia may change short term and long term under economic sanctions and whether the “Tehran on the Moskva” analogy is accurate or not.
Hosted by Brandon M. Chapman (Instructor and Department Chair of Anthropology and Sociology - Rowan College at Burlington County). Recorded on April 28, 2022.