Scholar traces Russia’s recent moves to Soviet collapse, NATO expansion and Crimea annexation

Professor Clint Walker, a faculty member in the Department of World Languages and Cultures, said historical events from the Christianization of Kievan Rus' to the collapse of the Soviet Union shape Russia’s contemporary foreign policy and Vladimir Putin’s worldview.

Walker told attendees that three figures—Prince Volodymyr (the medieval Christianizer of Rus'), Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Vladimir V. Putin—offer touchpoints for understanding Russia’s sense of history and grievance. He said Putin regards the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union as a seismic loss; Walker quoted Putin’s characterization of that event as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the twentieth century," as recounted by Walker during the presentation.

Walker said the legacy of World War II—known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War—and the mass deaths suffered during the siege of Leningrad are central to Putin’s political identity. He noted Putin’s birth date, Oct. 7, 1952, and linked symbolic ties between the postwar Soviet-era institutions and Putin’s generation.

The scholar traced more recent grievances to NATO enlargement and disputed diplomatic assurances from the early 1990s. Walker described NATO’s growth from roughly a dozen founding members after World War II to 32 members today and said many Russians view expansion as a security threat. He invoked the speeches and writings of U.S. policymakers from the post–Cold War era, including James Baker and Zbigniew Brzezinski, as background that has been cited in Russian critiques of Western policy toward the former Soviet space.

Walker reviewed the 2014 seizure and annexation of Crimea, saying it occurred after a Russian-speaking majority in the peninsula and a Russian military presence. He reported figures mentioned in the presentation—that post-annexation ballots reported near-unanimous votes to rejoin Russia—and emphasized that, under international law, the annexation was a violation because it followed military occupation. Walker also highlighted divisions within Ukraine between western regions oriented toward the EU and eastern regions with larger Russian-speaking populations, and he recounted the contested political history that preceded full-scale hostilities.

In audience questions, Walker said he opposed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. "I did not... I disagreed with the special military operation. I came out speaking out against it in the media," he said, and added that Ukraine "has an absolute right to its independence, its sovereignty." He also said he supports negotiations to end the war and that Russian perspectives have been underrepresented in Western coverage.

Walker recommended further reading to place contemporary events in context, including works by Samuel P. Huntington and commentary he said has shaped Russian interpretation of Western strategy.

The presentation combined historical overview and contemporary analysis to explain why, in Walker’s view, Russian leaders and many Russian-speaking communities reacted as they did after 1991, while also reiterating his explicit opposition to the military invasion of Ukraine.