UNC Professor To Speak on Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

The Foundation of Wayne Community College will host a talk on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by an expert on both countries on Thursday, March 31.

Graeme Robertson, a political science professor and the director of the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will discuss the history behind the invasion of Ukraine, the dramatic growth and resilience of Ukrainian civil society and resistance to Russian aggression, and the politics of war on the Russian side of the border.

Graeme Robertson

The session is set for 5:30 p.m. on March 31 in Moffatt Auditorium, in the Wayne Learning Center (building with flags in front) on the college’s main campus in Goldsboro. It will also be streamed live and can be viewed after the event at the same site.

Participants who attend in person will be able to ask questions after Robertson’s presentation.

Robertson is the author of “Putin v. The People,” published in 2019, “Revolution and Reform in Ukraine” (2018), and “The Politics of Protest in Hybrid Regimes: Managing Dissent in Post-Communist Russia” (2010). He regularly provides analysis on Russia and Ukraine to national and international publications.

In 2020, Robertson was named the Harold J. Glass USAF Faculty Mentor/Graduate Fellow Distinguished Term Professor by The Graduate School at UNC-CH.

During a UNC General Alumni Association webinar on the invasion, Robertson said, “This is not a surprise to any of us who have spent any time in that part of the world, that the Ukrainians are pushing back and pushing back hard and fighting for every inch. … In terms of Russian domestic politics, Putin made some wrong assumptions about Ukrainian public opinion, and he may be making some wrong assumptions about Russian public opinion, too.”

“People are watching this narrative on Russian state television, but they also have their friends, their family, their social media accounts,” Robertson said during the March 2 webinar. “If there are 4,000 Russian soldiers dead, once guys start coming in zinc coffins, word gets around really fast. Russians of all political persuasions trust their friends and family and relatives more than they trust state television. The battle for this narrative is going to be absolutely critical.”

This event is open to the public. No registration is required and there is no charge.

Masks are optional on the WCC campus.