KFG conference | An Exploration of Russia’s Anticolonial Stance Intellectual Genealogies, Institutional Production, and Foreign Policy

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Historicum
Schellingstraße 12
Room K226

9.00 – 9.15
Welcome: Martin Schulze Wessel, LMU Munich
Introductory Remarks: Marlene Laruelle, The George Washington University, Washington DC

9.15 – 11.00
Panel 1 — Anticolonialism at the Interplay of Domestic and Foreign Policy
Chair: Marlene Laruelle

Mikhail Suslov, University of Copenhagen
Between Internationalism and Traditionalism: Russia’s Global Ideological Outreach and the Soviet Legacy of Anti-Colonial Rhetoric

Ivan Grek, The George Washington University, Washington DC
Colonized by Liberalism: Anticolonial Discourse of Russian Illiberalism

Jules Sergei Fediunin, University of Oslo
Russia’s ´Anticolonialism´ and the Design of an Illiberal International (Dis)Order

Gulnaz Sibgatullina, Amsterdam University
Russia and Religious Internationalism: Illiberal Solidarities

11.30 – 13.00
Panel 2 — Reshaping the World Order and Its Values
Chair: Gulnaz Sibgatullina

Alexander Libman, Free University, Berlin
Between a ´True West´ and a Part of the ´Global Majority´: How Russian Propaganda Navigates the Rhetorical Dilemma and Does It Undermine Russia's Credibility?

Ivan U. Klyszcz, International Center for Defense and Security, Estonia
Collective and Reactionary: The Notion of ´Democracy´ in Russia's Idea of Multipolarity

Maxime Audinet, Institute for Strategic Research at the Military School (IRSEM), Paris
“Down with Neocolonialism!” Strategic Narrative Resurgence, Turn to the South and the Contestation of Liberal International Order in Wartime Russia

14.00 – 15.30
Panel 3 — International Outreach and Reception: Africa, Latin America, India
Chair: Alexander Libman

Arsenio Cuenza, Practical School of Advanced Studies (EPHE), Paris
Postcolonial Illiberalism and Its Role in Multipolar Geopolitics

Diego Soliz, France
Deciphering the Language of Russian Counter-Hegemonic Dialogue in Latin America: Colonialism After Sputnik Mundo

Adam Lenton, Wake Forest University, USA
Strategic Narratives and Public Opinion on the Russia-Ukraine War: Evidence From India

16.00 – 17.30
Panel 4 — A Book Discussion on Adam Lenton et al, Decolonizing Russia? Disentangling Debates (Cambridge, 2025, available in PDF here).
Chair: Ivan Grek

Conference Program