Camden Conference in the World ~ April

Exiled Russian historian and speaker at Camden’s 2021 Arctic Conference and 2022 Europe Conference Sergei Medvedev recently told the Irish Times that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule has progressed “from an authoritarian to an outright totalitarian and fascist regime.” Although Stalin executed more people, “The principle of indiscriminate terror, of creating an atmosphere of fear and denunciation, is the same.” Medvedev also gave interviews in March to Le Monde, alleging that “Russian society was built on the Mafia’s honor code,” and to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on the significance of Putin’s election to a fifth term.

Another 2022 speaker, former US Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst, said on Fox News that last month’s terrorist attack on a music venue near Moscow “shows how the overemphasis of Russian security resources on their aggression against Ukraine is making them weaker against true threats to Russian security.”

Demonstrating the diversity of views on which Camden Conference prides itself, leading Russian foreign policy journalist and researcher Fyodor Lukyanov wrote in early March that talk by French President Emanuel Macron and others of potential EU-member-state intervention in Ukraine is driven by “the realization that it is the EU that could be the main loser in the ongoing conflict.” Lukyanov, a speaker in Camden’s 2015 “Russia Resurgent” conference, originally wrote the piece for the Rossiyskaya Gazeta, and it was translated into English by official Russian news outlet Russia Today.

Gerald Knaus, a speaker at Camden’s 2017 Refugees and Global Migration conference, told a leading German news network: “Those who are hesitant in Europe to support Ukraine more have still not really grasped what is at stake… Because if Ukraine loses the war, we will experience the largest refugee movement in the world since the 1940s. Then many millions more people will come.”

The Russian fleet in the far northern waters of the Barents Sea is rethinking its modus operandi in response to Ukraine’s drone attacks in the Black Sea, reports The Brents Observer editor Thomas Nilsen, a speaker at Camden’s 2021 “Geopolitics of the Arctic” conference. “Training to stop aerial drones packed with explosives and a low profile on radar is the new war games for the marines sailing the Barents Sea,” Nilsen wrote.

“We should anticipate a China-India stalemate at least until after India’s electoral dust settles. Then, after what is most likely to be a strong BJP showing, perhaps New Delhi and Beijing will seek ways to normalize their diplomacy, even though their fundamental differences are sure to persist.” That is the assessment of recent speaker at Camden’s India conference Daniel Markey, delivered in a joint Q&A on “What’s Driving India-China Relations” published by the United States Institute for Peace.

Frequent and much-loved Camden Conference moderator and event speaker David Brancaccio, host of “Marketplace Morning Report” on National Public Radio, moderated a discussion last month on “Why Americans are drowning in medical debt.” He led off telling the audience about his own background of medical reporting: “Sometimes it’s exalted and inspiring when you learn about medical innovations that save lives, but it’s often heart-breaking…” Turning to “the numbers,” Brancaccio related facts including that 66.5% of personal bankruptcies in the United States are related to medical debt.