04.05.2023

Departmental Seminar: The Political Economy of Russian Imperialism

Ivan Bakalov (Univ. Marburg), Wednesday 10. May 23, 16:15 - 18:00, IfP, Room 124 or via Zoom

The presentation attempts to arrive at a coherent explanation of Russia's invasion in Ukraine by moving beyond the established theoretical accounts (geopolitics and civilisational choice) and focussing on the dead-end capitalist transition in Eastern Europe. This explanation locates the conditions precipitating the invasion in the contradictions of the unbridled neoliberal transformation in Russia and reads the invasion as an anticipated outcome of the broken hegemony of the dominant bloc (large capital and security apparatus) both domestically and internationally.

Ivan Bakalov is a visiting postdoc fellow at the CRC 'Dynamics of Security', Philipps-University Marburg. His research is situated at the intersection of international relations and international political economy, with an empirical focus on transformations in Eastern European politics and society.