As President Biden prepares to meet with President Putin on June 16, the territorial disputes in Ukraine — including Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its support for separatists in the Donbas — form the greatest single area of disagreement between the United States and Russia, and the greatest potential cause of conflict between them. The Quincy Institute is therefore glad to announce the publication of an important paper by Senior Research Fellow on Russia and Europe Anatol Lieven, setting out the basis for a negotiated solution to the conflict in Ukraine. 

To mark the paper’s launch and to discuss its recommendations, Lieven will be joined on a panel by two distinguished experts on Ukraine and U.S.-Russian relations, Nicolai Petro of University of Rhode Island, and Emma Ashford, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. QI's Kelley Beaucar Vlahos will moderate.

The summit in Europe between presidents Joseph Biden and Vladimir Putin is perhaps the most important of all President Biden’s international meetings since he took office. The United States and Russia are bitterly divided over a number of key issues, and it has even been suggested that the situation in Ukraine could lead to actual war between them. On the other hand, the United States and Russia have certain vital interests in common: averting the threat of war, limiting nuclear weapons, combating Islamist terrorism, managing the aftermath of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, and preventing catastrophic climate change.

To review the summit, examine these issues, and make recommendations for future U.S. policy towards Russia, the Quincy Institute and the American Committee for U.S.-Russia Accord (ACURA) will host a joint panel featuring former California Governor Jerry Brown; Katrina vanden Heuvel, editorial director and publisher of The Nation; and Joseph Cirincione, Distinguished Non-Resident Fellow at the Quincy Institute. QI’s Anatol Lieven will moderate.