Professor Seth Singleton will speak on Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday, February 4 at the Belfast Free Library. This event takes place from 6:30-8:00PM and is free and open to all.

The first line of the Soviet anthem celebrated “the unbreakable union of free republics”. It seems that for President Putin the bond with Ukraine is indeed unbreakable. Why is Russia so intent on control of Ukraine? Can Ukraine be a unified and effectively governed country independent of Russia? Is there a solution for Ukraine acceptable to Ukrainians, Russia, and the West?

Seth Singleton is Libra Professor of International Relations at the University of Maine. He studied Russian history and literature at Harvard and political science at Yale. His research for many years was on Soviet foreign policy in Asia and Africa, with grants at the Harvard Russian Research Center and the Kennan Institute in Washington, and speaking and consulting assignments for the US government. He has traveled to all parts of the former Soviet Union, and taught and lived in Russia in 1991-92, in Ekaterinburg and St. Petersburg. He has been academic dean at universities in the US and abroad and has held Fulbright grants in Vietnam (1999-2000) and Bolivia (2007) and a Soros Foundation grant in Mongolia (2005-2006).

This presentation is hosted by the Belfast Free Library and offered as a free community event in in anticipation of the 28th Annual Camden Conference: Russia Resurgent, February 20-22, 2015.

The mission of the Camden Conference is to foster informed discourse on world issues. For more information, visit www.camdenconference.org, email info@camdenconference.org, or call 207-236-1034.