Exploring “What Russia Wants” at the 9/11 Memorial Museum
Stephen Sestanovich, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, spoke at the 9/11 Memorial Museum on Wednesday night about Russia and its impact on America, Europe and the Middle East in the years following 9/11.
Sestanovich, a Columbia University professor and former State Department Ambassador at large, discussed Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and its increasingly assertive foreign policy in Syria and Afghanistan which challenges American influence.
In the video clip below, Sestanovich tells Cliff Chanin, Executive Vice President and Deputy Director for Museum Programs at the 9/11 Memorial Museum, that Russian military intervention in the Middle East is stronger and more focused than any intervention attempts carried out during the Cold War Era.
“For now, you’d have to say that the Russians have built a position in the Middle East which is stronger—has stronger foundations, wider across the region—than anything the Soviets were able to do in the Middle East in the entire history of the Soviet Union. And just to take the one case of the military intervention, that was bolder, more extensive, more unilateral and more successful than anything the Soviets did in the entire Cold War rivalry with the United States.”
To watch the program in full, please visit 911memorial.org/live. Find out more about upcoming programs at the 9/11 Memorial Museum here.
By 9/11 Memorial Staff
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