Do Russia's Domestic Politics make it a Disorderer? Invite for May 14 RUSI Liveshow

And for Paid Substack members: A special chart and info about global petrol prices

FIRSTLY, PLS COME TO OUR LIVE SHOW: NOW OPEN TO ALL DISORDER LISTENERS

Wednesday MAY 14, 17:30 AT RUSI.

Disorder Podcast Live: Ordering the Global Financial Disorder

17:30 – 20:00 BST; 14 May 2025

All Mega-Orderers can Join us FREE for a live recording of the Disorder Podcast with Tom Keatinge, Director of the Centre for Finance and Security AND JANE KINNIMONT OUR MEGA ORDERETTE-IN-CHIEF at RUSI IN LONDON

Pls sign up FOR FREE by getting a RUSI account and RSVPing here:

https://my.rusi.org/events/disorder-podcast-live-ordering-the-global-financial-disorder.html

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As Russia seeks a maximalist deal to secure its gains in Ukraine via negotiations with the Trump Administration, Putin is still trying to spread even more Disorder globally.

Are the Russians, in fact, the top table Disorderer globally? And if so, why? What internal domestic politics are driving that Disorder?

This week, Jason Pack is joined by Emily Ferris, a Senior Research Fellow in the International Security Studies department at RUSI, specialising in Russian domestic politics. Before joining RUSI in 2018, Emily worked at Control Risks - a London consultancy firm - as a Russian security and politics analyst, advising clients conducting business in Russia.

Jason and Emily discuss the complexities of Russia's internal dynamics, its infrastructure conundrums, its role as a disordering power, and whether there is genuine domestic opposition within the country.

Plus: Railways, Ports, Siberian governorships, Putin’s negotiation tactics with the Trump administration, Russia's territorial ambitions, and the ideological components driving its actions on the world stage. And as Emily and Jason close the conversation, they discuss the future of Russia post-Putin and – to Order the Disorder – Emily explains her view on importance of cultivating serious academic expertise in understanding domestic Russian affairs.

(Listen on Apple Podcasts here; and on Spotify here)

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Background on Emily and RUSI’s Russia content

Read Beyond Ukraine: Russia’s Foreign Policy Challenges in 2025 | Royal United Services Institute

Read Under the President’s Patronage: Weaponising the All-Russia People’s Front | Royal United Services Institute

Read After the NATO Summit: Are We Already at War with Russia? | Royal United Services Institute

Become RUSI members for more of their brilliant content: https://my.rusi.org/membership.html

Read Jason on the Artic and the Global Enduring Disorder: https://www.natofoundation.org/emerging-challenges/in-the-arctic-cooperation-with-russia-is-simply-too-important/

Key Quotes

1 (Emily Ferris) – I don't think we're, we're seeing quite a lot of younger people coming through that are quite interesting.  Not necessarily dynamic,  not necessarily with new ideas.  And that's where that whole idea of the Putin system that will outlast him comes in because  these are people that owe their entire careers to Putin  that most of their lives have been under, under his stewardship. These are people that he has some of them whom he's kind of groomed for power, some of them who just don't know anything different. And it's a system that rewards loyalty above else, but not really new ideas.

2 (This is the text of the above video)

(Emily Ferris) – that's exactly what the Russians want, which is, to try to pry apart the Americans and the Europeans.(Jason)  What are things given this state of conflict that we have that the British government or that the EU can try to do in its Russia policy if the Americans are not playing ball in trying to act on this threat?

(Emily)  A big part of of Russia's kind of, you know,  disorder  and interests in, in trying to sort of, uh, create frictions between different powers is that, that does play into, the Wests then inability to make a clear policy on Russia because there are so many sort of competing issues.  And so that can be rather dangerous for European security.  It makes us much more fractured and, and those in, in those fractures, Russia can take advantage.So it's important, uh, to sort of try to, to build up some of that unity on perhaps different issues.

And for Paid Substack members:

A special chart and info about global petrol prices which shows that we live in a world without functioning markets — as subsidies and mercantilism and dysfunctional regulations (like neighboring countries taxing the same good at different rates) — means that what at essence should be a commodity (crude oil) that its use and emissions must be consistently globally regulated and globally taxed for it to work, is in fact treated like a political football causing every sort of distortion, inefficiency, etc… and this is like what differential tariff rates will due to other aspects of our economy! So pls join the substack and look at this amazing info below