220. John Lough - Moscow’s Bogus ‘Security Concerns’ are Fundamentally Incompatible with European Security

GUEST: John Lough - Associate fellow of the Russia & Eurasia Programme, Chatham House ---------- Calls to treat as legitimate the ‘security concerns’ raised by Russia, and to account for these in a future settlement of the war in Ukraine, disregard the fact that Moscow’s requirements are fundamentally incompatible with European security. Proponents of a settlement in the war on Ukraine often put forward the idea that Russian ‘security concerns’ must be taken into account in any such settlement, but also in broader revisions to the European security system. These proposals echo the Russian information campaign over the past 30 years to persuade European publics that there can be ‘no security in Europe without Russia’. They provide false support to the argument that Western security policy after the collapse of the USSR unnecessarily encroached on core Russian interests by expanding NATO and forcing Moscow to militarize its foreign policy. In this telling, Russia was merely challenging what it viewed as an unjust European security order. ---------- SPEAKER: John Lough is an associate fellow of the Russia & Eurasia Programme at Chatham House. He began his career as an analyst at the Soviet Studies (later Conflict Studies) Research Centre focusing on Soviet / Russian security policy. He spent six years with NATO and was the first Alliance representative to be based in Moscow (1995–98). He gained direct experience of the Russian oil and gas industry at international affairs TNK-BP as a manager in the company’s international affairs team (2003–08). From 2008 to 2016, he ran the Russia & CIS practice at BGR Gabara, a public affairs and strategy consulting company. Alongside his work with Chatham House, John is a consultant with Highgate, a strategic advisory firm. ---------- LINKS: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2023/06/how-end-russias-war-ukraine