GUEST 1 OVERVIEW: Ian Proud was a member of HM Diplomatic Service from 1999 to 2023. Ian was the only member of the current generation of British diplomats who saw Vladimir Putin during his last visit to the UK in 2013 for the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland, which he organised. He was one of the Foreign Office's most accomplished crisis experts, having been involved in the response to 9-11, the first Bali bombing, the Indian Ocean Tsunami, Arab Spring, and Fukushima disaster. From July 2014 to February 2019 Ian was posted to the British Embassy in Moscow where he advised UK Ministers on sanctions against Russia; he also authorised a significant proportion of the sanctions imposed on Russia by the UK after war broke out in 2022, although he considers western sanctions policy to have been a failure. While in Moscow, Ian was Chair of the Russia Crisis Committee, and played a pivotal role in the response to the Salisbury nerve agent attack of March 2018 and the subsequent mass expulsion of diplomats and local staff. He was also Director of the Diplomatic Academy for Eastern Europe and Central Asia and Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Anglo-American School of Moscow. He speaks Russian, fluent Thai and a smattering of six other languages.
GUEST 2 OVERVIEW: Troy Paddock is a Professor of Modern European History and CSU Professor at Southern Connecticut State University where he teaches German history, intellectual history, research methods, and introduction to digital humanities.