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Carol Saivetz

Senior Advisor | MIT Security Studies Program

Carol R. Saivetz is a Senior Advisor in the MIT Security Studies Program. She is also a Research Associate at Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. She holds an M.I.A., M.Phil., and a PhD from Columbia University in Political Science and a certificate from what is now the Harriman Institute at Columbia. Between 1995-2005, she was the Executive Director of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies and between 1992-2006 she was a Lecturer in Government at Harvard. She is currently teaching Russian Foreign Policy in the Political Science Department at MIT. Professor Saivetz has consulted for the U.S. Government on topics ranging from energy politics in the Caspian and Black Sea regions, questions of stability in Central Asia, to Russian policy toward Iran. She is the author and contributing co-editor of 5 books and numerous articles on Soviet and now Russian foreign policy issues, including an assessment of the “reset,” Russian policies toward the other Soviet successor states, and current U.S.-Russian relations. Her current research project focuses on security in the Black Sea region and the impact of the way in Ukraine and Russia’s policies towards the other post-Soviet states. She has also published opinion pieces on the Ukraine crisis, Russian intervention in Syria, and Russian approaches to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh for the Lawfare Blog (Brookings) and commented on Ukraine, Syria, and the most recent US-Russian summit for local radio and TV. She is the co-chair of the MIT seminar series “Focus on Russia,” sponsored by the MIT Security Studies Program, the Center for International Studies, and MIT-Russia.

Answers

Does Putin’s personality and psychology play into these decisions?

Why did Putin invade Ukraine?

Putin says Ukraine is developing nuclear weapons, is that real?

Would Putin use nuclear weapons?

What is the human cost of the Russian invasion?

What is the relationship between Russia and Belarus?

Did Belarus vote to withdraw from a nuclear weapons agreement?

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