CEURUS Public Lecture “Political Legitimacy and Traditional Values in Putin’s Russia”

On Monday, 6 October 2025, Assoc. Prof. Helge Blakkisrud from the University of Oslo will deliver a public lecture to introduce an edited volume “Political Legitimacy and Traditional Values in Putin’s Russia” (edited by Helge Blakkisrud and Pål Kolstø; Edinburgh University Press, 2025). The lecture will take place at 14:15-16:00, at Lossi 36, room 215 and is open to everyone interested.

About the book:

Since Vladimir Putin’s return to the Russian presidency in 2012, protection and promotion of so-called ‘traditional values’ has played a prominent role in the Kremlin’s propaganda campaigns. From the large-scale demonstrations in 2011–2012 to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, conservative social values have been mobilised to justify the Kremlin’s policy choices. In the case of the invasion, for example, Putin argued that the allegedly ‘decadent’ western world was using Ukraine as a springboard to export its ‘pseudo-values’ into Russia. Drawing on a series of case studies spanning elite-level political rhetoric, the work of various ideological ‘values entrepreneurs’ such as the Russian Orthodox Church, and, not least, of grassroots sentiments, Political Legitimacy and Traditional Values in Putin's Russia explores authoritarian regime legitimation in today’s Russia. Read more about the book here.

Helge Blakkisrud is Associate Professor of Russian Area Studies at the University of Oslo and Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. His main research interests include Russian federalism and centre–region relations, in particular, the development of the institution of governors. Research interests also include Russia's High North/Arctic policy, nationality policy and Russian nationalism, as well as processes of state-building and nation-building in Eurasia, especially in Eurasian de facto states. Blakkisrud is editor of Nordisk Østforum, a Nordic peer-reviewed journal for Russian and East European studies.

The lecture is organised by the Centre for East European and Eurasian Studies (CEURUS) at the University of Tartu.