“Trumped-up Good Relations? A Russian Perspective on the USA Today” with Irina Filippova

Fourth Dickinson College Public Lecture

When Donald Trump was elected as the 45th President of the United States of America on November 8th, 2016, many were shocked – but othersmay have harbored faint hopes as well. Since Trump had already announced his intention to improve American relations with the Russian Federation,many Russian citizens might have expected a new thaw between the two nuclear powers. But events and debates in the USA over the last fewmonths have left an ambivalent impression: Amid allegations that Russia attempted to influence the US presidential election, President Trump’steam is also under attack from his own party for its members’ relationships with Russian contacts, and with his recent decision to order an airstrike in Syria, Trump appears to be adding to the chill.This raises the question of what Russians think of and expect from the USA right now. And more importantly, will future generations improverelations or further entrench the status quo? Irina Filippova, Director of the Dickinson-in-Russia Program at the Russian State University for theHumanities in Moscow (RGGU), will provide us with some answers. She has collected statements from colleagues at the RGGU, from the press,from Muscovites, and from Dickinson students currently studying in Moscow. Rather than presenting a political analysis of what can only bedescribed as an uncertain status quo, she will give us a first-hand insight into public opinion in Russia, and the mindset and sentiments of so-called”ordinary people” there.

IRINA FILIPPOVA is a Professor of Russian as a Foreign Language at the Russian State University for Humanities,Russia, Moscow and she is the Resident Director of the Dickinson-in-Moscow program, which is also heldin RGGU. Filippova’s position connects her professional interests in the sphere of Second Language Acquisitionand her passion for the Russian History and Culture with the interest in working with diverse students.

Guesthouse of the Universität of Bremen, Auf dem Teerhof 58, 28195 Bremen