About The Ellison Center at the University of Washington
The Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies at the University of Washington promotes in-depth interdisciplinary study of all major post-communist subregions - Eastern and Central Europe, the Baltic region, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and Russia - in order to understand the legacies of the imperial and communist past as well as to analyze the emerging institutions and identities that will shape Eurasia's future.
We share audio of interesting and relevant events hosted by our Center.
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The Ellison Center at the University of Washington
Dr. Alexander Vindman | Russia, Ukraine, and the US Today
Jackson School Director Danny Hoffman and Ellison Center Director Guntis Šmidchens engage in an insightful discussion with special guest speaker Dr. Alexander Vindman on current geopolitical affairs, US democracy, and the Russo-Ukrainian War.
This podcast was recorded on November 10th, 2025 in Seattle, Washington.
This conversation was supported by the Jackson Foundation and the Ellison Center.
21 Jul 2025TRANSCRIPT
Lauri Malksoo | Russia, the Soviet Union, and Imperial Continuity in International Law
Lauri Malksoo gives the keynote address at the 2025 REECAS Northwest Conference, an ASEEES regional conference which takes place annually at the University of Washington. Lauri Mälksoo is Professor of International Law at the University of Tartu in Estonia and member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. During the academic year 2023-2024, he was fellow at the Institut d’études avancées (IEA) in Paris. He earned his law degree at the University of Tartu in 1998, his LL.M. at Georgetown University in 1999 and doctorate at Humboldt University Berlin in 2002. He has subsequently had fellowships at NYU School of Law, at the University of Tokyo and at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars (in Washington, DC). He is member of the Institut de Droit International and since 2021, of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe. He is an editor-in-chief of the Baltic Yearbook of International Law (at Brill) and is member of the editorial board of the Review of Central and East European Law. Among his publications are monographs Illegal Annexation and State Continuity: The Incorporation of the Baltic States by the USSR'(2nd ed., 2022, Brill) and Russian Approaches to International Law (OUP, 2015). He has published widely on the history of international law related to Russia and the Soviet Union, as well as on current developments and cases in international law.
6 Jun 2024TRANSCRIPT
Oxana Shevel | Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States
In February 2022, Russian missiles rained on Ukrainian cities and tanks rolled towards Kyiv to end Ukrainian independent statehood. President Zelensky declined a western evacuation offer and rallied the army and citizens to defend Ukraine. What are the roots of this war which has devastated Ukraine, upended the international legal order, and brought back the spectre of nuclear escalation? How is it that these supposedly “brotherly peoples” became each other’s worst nightmare?
In Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Divergent States, Maria Popova and Oxana Shevel explain how over the last thirty years Russia and Ukraine diverged politically ending up on a catastrophic collision course. Russia slid back into authoritarianism and imperialism, while Ukraine consolidated a competitive political system and pro-European identity. As Ukraine built a democratic nation-state, Russia refused to accept it and came to see it as an “anti-Russia” project. After political pressure and economic levers proved ineffective and even counterproductive, Putin went to war to force Ukraine back into the fold of the “Russian world.” Ukraine resisted, determined to pursue European integration as a sovereign state. These irreconcilable goals, rather than geopolitical wrangling between Russia and the West over NATO expansion, are – the authors argue – essential to understanding Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Inside a recent episode
Dr. Alexander Vindman | Russia, Ukraine, and the US Today
Published 25 Nov 2025 · Transcript excerpt
[…] There have been some shakeups in military leadership at times for functional reasons to improve the performance. I think at times, scapegoats. Minister of Defense has switched out. Most of the leadership has switched out. But the trusted loyalist Gerasimov is still in place conducting a war, even though I think, you know, by many accounts, the buck might have stopped with him and he would have been cycled out in many other countries. It is a military that over the course of almost four years now has made some adjustments. They're using more increasingly Russia's superior industrial base, especially with the production of drones to punish the Ukrainian state. […]
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