Watch the Video: Prigozhin, the Kremlin, and the Battle for Bakhmut

For the past seven months, Russia has been waging the Battle for Bakhmut, a city that has relatively little strategic importance but has involved the losses of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers. With eastern Bakhmut under Kremlin control, and Ukraine in possession of the western part, Russian shortages of ammunition and a new mobilization effort for manpower stands at a critical crossroads as Western armor and munitions flow into Ukraine for an anticipated spring offensive. The Battle for Bakhmut will have a lasting impact on Russia and Russian society. As such, The Jamestown Foundation was proud to hold the virtual event, “Prigozhin, the Kremlin, and the Battle for Bakhmut” on Wednesday, March 22 at 11:00 AM. The event featured a panel with three distinguished experts, Pavel K. Baev (originally from Moscow), Pavel Luzin (originally from St. Petersburg), and Sergey Sukhankin (originally from Kaliningrad). The panel was moderated by Jamestown President Glen Howard.

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Pavel K. Baev is a nonresident senior fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, a regular contributor to Jamestown’s Eurasia Daily Monitor, and a research professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). He specializes in Russian military reform, Russia’s conflict management in the Caucasus and Central Asia, energy interests in Russia’s foreign and security policies, as well as Russia’s relations with Europe and NATO.

Dr. Pavel Luzin is a visiting scholar at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. He is also a regular contributor at The Jamestown Foundation, Riddle and the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He is a specialist in international relations and an expert on the Russian Armed Forces. Much of his research and writings focus on Russian foreign policy and defense, space policy and non-proliferation studies.

Dr. Sergey Sukhankin is a Senior Fellow at The Jamestown Foundation and an advisor at Gulf State Analytics (Washington, DC). He received a PhD in contemporary political and social history from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. His areas of interest include Kaliningrad and the Baltic Sea region, Russian information and cyber security, A2/AD and its interpretation in Russia, the Arctic region, as well as the development of Russian private military companies since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War. He has consulted or briefed with CSIS (Canada), DIA (USA), and the European Parliament.