CCT Dine & Discuss - Who Is Vladimir Putin? What Does He Believe In?

The Village Spot is welcoming us with open arms and is excited to have our group!

The Village Spot

3150 Village Walk Circle

Naples, FL 34109

(Please announce at the gate that you’re attending the Center for Critical Thinking Dinner)

Refund Policy: Refunds only available up to 3 days before the event.

Eligible refunds are subject to a $4 service fee.

The event will start at 6:00 pm.

Speaker: Bill Pope

Topic: Who Is Vladimir Putin? What Does He Believe In?

If Putin completes his current term, he will be the longest-serving Russian leader in 200 years, since Catherine the Great. He will be in office even longer than Stalin. It is highly likely that he will run again in 2030. By 2036, Putin will be 84. In effect, he is President-for-Life.

Is Putin an avowed enemy of the U.S., of the West, and of democracy? Do our leaders often seem unaware of his determination to weaken us or, if aware, unwilling to take it into account when formulating Russia policy? This is your opportunity to get a sense of who Putin is and what drives him.

About the Speaker: Bill Pope attended the University of Virginia and Georgetown University. He served as a Russian linguist in the U.S. Army Security Agency and attended the National War College and later the Department of Defense's flag officer training course, "Capstone."

During almost 44 years with the U.S. Department of State, Bill had seven overseas postings and held several senior positions in Washington, including as the Department’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism. Prior to that assignment, Bill was the Deputy Chief of Mission and long-term Chargé d’Affaires (Acting Ambassador) in Rome; Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague; and specialist on the Soviet Union/Eastern Europe in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He served also in Paris; Belgrade; Zagreb; and Gaborone, Botswana. He holds the State Department’s Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards and its Career Achievement Award.

Since retirement, he has served on numerous boards, the most important of which, of course, was the CCT. He also was a Trustee of the Fisher House Foundation, a veterans’ service organization; the Michael Stern Parkinson's Research Foundation at Rockefeller University; and the Advisory Board of the Security & Defence Agenda, a Brussels-based forum on trans-Atlantic defense and security issues. He was a Diplomatic Fellow at George Mason University, where he taught graduate courses in Bio-defense and Counterterrorism. He also was an Adjunct Professor at The George Washington University, where he taught a graduate-level course on Counterterrorism.

Since relocating to Asheville, North Carolina, Bill has been a member of the Board of the World Affairs Council of Western North Carolina and has served as co-instructor on the Great Decisions Program.