The fall of the Soviet Union sparked an identity crisis in Russia and its effects continue to influence foreign policy under President Vladimir Putin. Over the past decade and a half, Russia may have ceased to be an active enemy of the West. But it has not become part of the West, nor has it entirely lost the anti-western instincts instilled by seventy years of communist rule. The events of 9/11 and war in Iraq have added to Russia's identity crisis, as has China's emergence as an economic superpower, posing the question: does Russia belong to the East or West?

Speakers:

Andrei Piontkovsky, Director of the Centre for Strategic Research, Moscow

Yulia Latynina, Senior Commentator, Echo Moscow Radio and Moscow Times.

The Foreign Policy Centre will stage a debate between two leading advocates from each side of the argument, which echoes the nineteenth-century debates of Slavophiles and Westernisers. The author of a new pamphlet commissioned by the FPC, "Russia's Crisis of Identity and Foreign Policy", Andrei Piontkovsky will argue that only by facing Westwards can Russia achieve its foreign policy goals and secure a European identity for the twenty-first century. A different point of view may be expected from Alexei Mitrofanov, the foreign affairs spokesman of the nationalist LPDR party led by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who argues that Russia should cultivate ties with the developing world, especially with Soviet-era friends there, and resist the spread of Western influence throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States.