FUNNYGAD

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, events have moved at a dizzying pace. We have witnessed unprecedented responses throughout the world, from Germany’s “overnight” creation of a €100-billion army fund to the ejection of Russia from the Swift financial messaging system. To try to make sense of these extraordinary and disturbing events, The Conversation has been calling on the wisdom and experience of an array of expert voices. They’ve helped us to address such questions as: What are Russia’s strategic aims, and how effectively are they achieving them? Will sanctions topple Putin? How will the displacement of Ukraine refugees impact the UK? What are the risks that Russia will turn to its nuclear arsenal? But as the situation continues to unfold in often chaotic and unpredictable ways, we know you have many more questions that need answering. To aid our collective understanding, we’ve organised a special online event for Monday, March 14 from 5pm-6pm GMT, featuring four leading academics with specialist knowledge of different aspects of the crisis. Joining Jonathan Este on the panel will be: Professor Stefan Wolff (Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham) Professor Oxana Shevel (Tufts University, author of Migration, Refugee Policy, and State Building in Postcommunist Europe) Dr Alexander Mihailov (Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Reading, Director of the Group for Economic Analysis at Reading) Dr Aglaya Snetkov (Lecturer in International Politics, UCL School of Slavonic & East European Studies) Please feel free to send me your questions in advance, on any aspect of the crisis, to this email address: uk-webinars@theconversation.com, marked “Ukraine event”.