On Friday, January 10, 2025, the HK+ Business Group of the Russian Institute (Director Sang-yong Pyo) held the annual seminar “Russia in Wartime: Crisis or Opportunity?: Outlook for Russia in 2025” as part of the publication of the annual report Russia Report. The Russia Report seminar is a regular academic event held by the Russian Institute every January. This seminar focused on the crisis Russia is facing as the Russia-Ukraine War enters its third year and the complex phenomenon of how this situation has turned into an opportunity.

The seminar, which began with an opening speech by Director Sang-yong Pyo of the Russian Institute and a congratulatory address by Professor Emeritus Deok-soo Kang of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, consisted of two sessions. The first session, moderated by Professor Seong-hoon Je of the Department of Russian Language at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, consisted of presentations by Professor Dam-lin Yeon of Hanshin University, Research Fellow Ji-won Park of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, and Research Fellow Joo-yeon Lee of the Northeast Asian History Foundation on Russia’s domestic politics, economy, and foreign relations, which led to an interesting and wide-ranging discussion. The second session was moderated by Professor Kim Soo-hwan of the Russian Language Department, and lecturers Kim Gyu-chul of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Song Jeong-soo of Chung-Ang University, and Jeon Mi-ra of the Russian Studies Institute HK Research Professor reviewed Russia over the past year from the perspectives of military security, Korea-Russia relations, and socio-cultural affairs, respectively, and shared notable events. After each presentation, the designated discussants and about 50 attendees shared their opinions, examining the impact of the protracted Russia-Ukraine War on Russian society, international relations, and our Russian academic community, and forecasting Russia in 2025. The manuscripts presented at this seminar will be distributed online as a summary through the Russia-Eurasia Focus column published by the Russian Studies Institute, and will be published as an online book in March.