This event is online only.

Please join the Program on U.S.-Russia Relations at the Harriman Institute for a panel discussion with Professor Vladimir Rouvinski, NPR journalist Carrie Kahn, and Professor Elena Pavlova, on Russian-Latin American Relations following Russia’s War on Ukraine. Moderated by Elise Giuliano.

In recent years, Russia has sought to challenge U.S. influence in Latin America, not only via ongoing ties to allies such as Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, but also by expanding relations with states such as Brazil and Argentina. When Russia invaded Ukraine last year, many states in Latin America responded with ambivalence. Our panel of experts will discuss why this is the case by examining ongoing reactions to the war there among both governments and populations. Has Russia “won” the messaging campaigns about the war? Panelists will also address how Western economic sanctions have created challenges for some states and unexpected economic opportunities for others, and how to understand current policy among Latin American states in the broader current international context.

Dr. Vladimir Rouvinski is a professor in the Department of Political Studies and director of the Laboratory for Politics and International Relations Laboratory (PoInt) at the Icesi University in Cali, Colombia. Hi also coordinates the same university’s Pacific Alliance Studies Program (PEAP). Vladimir’s main area of expertise is Asian and Russian relations with Latin America and the Caribbean, and for over 10 years he was Chair of the Asia and the Americas section at the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). Before joining Icesi in 2007, Vladimir worked with educational and research institutions in Russia, Japan, and Colombia. He has also held research positions at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, the Georg Eckert Institute in Braunschweig, Germany, and Florida International University in Miami, FL. Among his most recent books are (co-authored) “Rethinking Post-Cold War Russian-Latin American Relations” (Routledge, 2022) and “Between East and West. State, Nation, and Conflict in Contemporary Ukraine” (in Spanish, Tirant lo Blanch, 2022)

Carrie Kahn is NPR’s International Correspondent based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Kahn’s reports can be heard on NPR’s award-winning news programs including All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition, and on NPR.org. Previously, she spent a decade based in Mexico City, Mexico, covering Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America. She arrived in Mexico in the summer of 2012, on the eve of the election of President Enrique Peña Nieto and the PRI party’s return to power, and reported on everything from the rise in violence throughout the country to its powerful drug cartels, and the arrest, escape and re-arrest of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. She reported on the Trump Administration’s immigration policies and their effects on Mexico and Central America, the increasing international migration through the hemisphere, gang violence in Central America and the historic détente between the Obama Administration and Cuba. Kahn is a recipient of the 2020 Cabot Prize from Columbia Journalism School, which honors distinguished reporting on Latin America and the Caribbean.

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