Seminar with Andrei Kolesnikov at SCEEUS

On Wednesday 15 September, SCEEUS hosted a seminar with Andrei Kolesnikov – a well-known author, a columnist for independent Russian publications Novaya Gazeta (Moscow) and Newtimes.ru and a member of the scientific advisory council of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA). The discussion was moderated by Fredrik Löjdquist, Director of SCEEUS.

During the seminar, Andrei Kolesnikov presented his new book The Closing of the Russian Mind: How Putin's Ideology Took the Nation Hostage about the basis of the leading modern Russian ideology. In the book “The Closing of the Russian Mind. How Putin’s ideology Took the Nation Hostage” Andrei Kolesnikov argues that Putin’s Russia is in the grip of intense ideological radicalization, seeking to mobilize its population in support of a form of chauvinistic neo-imperialism using increasingly totalitarian methods. This march towards "hybrid totalitarianism" is, according to Kolesnikov, driven by a messianic view of Russia as a superior, "spiritual" form of "state-civilization" underpinned by its Orthodox faith and hatred of Western "decadence."

From 2015 to 2024 he worked as a senior fellow at the Russian branch of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In 2022, Kolesnikov was labelled a “foreign agent” by the Russian authorities, but he continues to be based in Moscow.