Panelists:
Sir Laurie Bristow, appointed President of Hughes Hall, Cambridge in 2022, was a British diplomat for 32 years. He was Ambassador to Afghanistan during the fall of the Republic to the Taliban in 2021, the UK’s Ambassador to Russia from 2016 to 2020, and Deputy Ambassador to Russia from 2007 to 2010. He was Ambassador to Azerbaijan from 2004 to 2007. Sir Laurie regularly writes and comments on Russia and national and international security issues. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute, a Senior Associate Fellow of the European Leadership Network, and Visiting Professor at LSE Ideas.
Jamie Coomarasamy currently presents The World Tonight on Radio 4, and Newshour on the BBC World Service. He has also presented on BBC World News. He was previously a BBC correspondent, with postings in Washington, Paris, Warsaw, and Moscow, and a reporter for Newsnight, and The Today programme.
Dr Rebecca Reich is Associate Professor of Russian Literature and Culture at the University of Cambridge. She is the author of State of Madness: Psychiatry, Literature, and Dissent After Stalin (2018) and the Consultant Editor for Russia and East-Central Europe at the Times Literary Supplement
