Annual Conference on Russia is organised by the Baltic Defence College for more than half a decade.
The Conference has attracted delegates from the Baltic and allied military community, international institutions, governments, academia, and the private sector to discuss the most pressing issues shaping Russia, its near abroad, and global challenges since 2015.
Since the establishment of the Baltic Defence College over the twenty years ago and more particularly from the inception of our conference and publications, we have become a hub of knowledge and honed a reputation for unveiling diverse trends related to Russia’s contemporary domestic agenda and external influence.
Conference team
Sandis Šrāders is a Fellow and Lecturer in Russian Military and Strategic Studies at the Baltic Defence College (Tartu, Estonia). American foreign policy is his major concentration, whereas small states and international political economy are his minor focuses. Dr. Šrāders has assumed different roles. He has served as Secretary General of Latvian Transatlantic Organization (LATO) from 2007 until 2014 and assumed the role of a Board Member of LATO since 2014. He has been the project coordinator for the German Marshall Fund of the United States in the Baltic States (2013–2015). His responsibility was accumulating the intellectual capital for the Latvian Presidency at the EU Council in 2015. Dr. Šrāders was responsible for expert selection and meetings as well as final publication addressing the EU’s Eastern Partnership. One of his recent positions was Director of Strategic Projects, Sales, and Advertising at Latvijas Radio (2018–2019). He is the author of the recent (2021) book Small Baltic States and the Euro-Atlantic Security Community.
George Spencer Terry is a lecturer of Eastern European and Russia studies at the Baltic Defence College in Tartu, Estonia. He is additionally a PhD candidate at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies at the University of Tartu. Having written on the relationship between Russia and EU member states, his research interests additionally include the radical right, wider Eurasia, and political theory, and discourse theory. Before his time at the Baltic Defence College, he has worked as an academic editor and project coordinator, and he received his MA from the University of Tartu and his BA from the George Washington University. He currently lives in Tartu, Estonia.