220. John Lough - Moscow’s Bogus ‘Security Concerns’ are Fundamentally Incompatible with European Security

<p>GUEST: John Lough - Associate fellow of the Russia &amp; Eurasia

Programme, Chatham House

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Calls to treat as legitimate the ‘security concerns’ raised by Russia,

and to account for these in a future settlement of the war in Ukraine,

disregard the fact that Moscow’s requirements are fundamentally

incompatible with European security. Proponents of a settlement in the

war on Ukraine often put forward the idea that Russian ‘security

concerns’ must be taken into account in any such settlement, but also in

broader revisions to the European security system.

These proposals echo the Russian information campaign over the past 30

years to persuade European publics that there can be ‘no security in

Europe without Russia’. They provide false support to the argument that

Western security policy after the collapse of the USSR unnecessarily

encroached on core Russian interests by expanding NATO and forcing

Moscow to militarize its foreign policy. In this telling, Russia was

merely challenging what it viewed as an unjust European security order.

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SPEAKER:

John Lough is an associate fellow of the Russia &amp; Eurasia Programme

at Chatham House. He began his career as an analyst at the Soviet

Studies (later Conflict Studies) Research Centre focusing on Soviet /

Russian security policy. He spent six years with NATO and was the first

Alliance representative to be based in Moscow (1995–98). He gained

direct experience of the Russian oil and gas industry at international

affairs TNK-BP as a manager in the company’s international affairs team

(2003–08). From 2008 to 2016, he ran the Russia &amp; CIS practice at

BGR Gabara, a public affairs and strategy consulting company. Alongside

his work with Chatham House, John is a consultant with Highgate, a

strategic advisory firm.

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LINKS:

https://www.chathamhouse.org/2023/06/how-end-russias-war-ukraine </p>

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