The Current State of U.S. Russian Relations with author and journalist Gregory Feifer. Nearly, every 24-hour news cycle contains a news item related to Russia. Whether it is about meddling in U.S. elections or trying to expand their military and diplomatic overtures to other countries around the world, Russia is in the news. Vladimir Putin is determined to bring Russia back to what he believes is its rightful position among the world powers. Gregory will offer insights that may help us in understanding the rationale behind the current chaos in the world order.
The Council of Former Federal Executives (COFFE), in partnership with the Little Falls Village, has invited journalist Gregory Feifer to talk about the current state of US/Russian relations. A former NPR Moscow correspondent who reported from Russia for almost a decade, he witnessed the coup d’état attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. During the country's resurgence under Vladimir Putin, he observed the effects of its vast new oil wealth on an increasingly nationalistic society, as well as Moscow's rekindling of a new Cold War-style opposition to the West. He has also reported from Ukraine and many other former Soviet republics. Later, as a senior correspondent at Radio Free Europe in Prague, Feifer investigated Russian influence in Europe, including the Kremlin's use of Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, as an instrument of foreign policy. Before joining NPR in 2005, Feifer lived in Paris and New York and has written for numerous outlets, including The New Republic, The Washington Post, and World Policy Journal. Feifer is the author of The Great Gamble, a history of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and co-author of Spy Handler: Memoir of a KGB Officer, The True Story of the Man Who Recruited Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames, with former KGB colonel, Victor Cherkashin.
He is the son of a Russian mother and American father, George Feifer, who was one of the few Western journalists to really dig under the surface of Soviet life during the Cold War. Educated at Harvard, Gregory is an associate of Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian Studies. He is currently working on a book about the assassinated Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. He also serves as executive director of the Institute of Current World Affairs, which awards fellowships to young men and women allowing them to travel outside of the US and gain an in-depth understanding of chosen topic areas.
This event is a collaboration with COFFE (Council of Former Federal Executives & Associates).
A Partnership Between Little Falls Village & The Little Falls Library of Montgomery County Public Libraries
