Author: Elena Gorbacheva

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Workshop “Soviet and Post-Soviet Imaginings of Climate”

The workshop, Soviet and Post-Soviet Imaginings of Climate, took place on March 29–30, 2017, at King’s College, London. The event was organised by Nottingham Trent University (Department of Politics and IR), with the support of King’s College’s Russia Institute and funding from the British Association of Slavic and East European Studies (BASEES) and the Academic Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES). The conference tackled the theme of climate change as a scientific, environmental and political issue in the Soviet and post-Soviet sphere.
The workshop was divided into a day focused on the Soviet era and a day focused on the
Post-Soviet era. The keynote speakers were Jon Oldfield, University of Birmingham, and Elana
Wilson Rowe, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, respectively. The workshop enjoyed
presentations from scholars from Russia, UK, Finland, Norway, Hungary, Germany and
Australia.

Professor Tynkkynen was taking part in it and presented a paper “The Environment in Russia’s Energy Diplomacy: Utilization of ‘The Year of the Environment 2017’ in State-Controlled Mass Media”

More information on the workshop.

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Science and business in dialogue

On 23d of March Helsinki University Rector hosted an event “Science and business in dialogue”. Professor Tynkkynen gave a presentation titled “Environmental Effects of Energy Flows, Corporate Responsibility, and Environmental Discourse in Russia”.

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Lecture: Russia, an Energy Giant: Fossil or Renewable?

Yesterday Professor Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen was giving a lecture on energy politics, titled “Energiajätti Venäjä: fossiilinen vai uusiutuva?” (Russia, an Energy Giant: Fossil or Renewable?). The lecture was organised by Suomi-Venäjä Seura at Työväenmuseo Werstas auditorium in Tampere, and was part of the events of “Russia as a niighbour” series during the 100th year of Finnish Independence celebration. More information is available here.

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Rakkaudesta tieteeseen

Strategic Research Council (STN) organised “Rakkaudesta tieteeseen” (From love to science) session on 14th of February. Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen took part together with Pami Aalto in the session “Globaali muutos ja Suomi” (Global Change and Finland), where they gave a talk titled “Suomen energiaturvallisuus muuttuvassa maailmassa” (Finnish energy security in the changing world).

You can watch a video of their presentation here.

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Winland blog post

Sakari Höysniemi published a new blog post on the Winland project blog. The post titled “Arjen energiaturvallisuutta liikenteessä” (Energy Safety in Everyday Traffic) can be read here.

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Yköösaamu on oil and Russia

Listen to the new episode of Ykkösaamu radio programme on Yle Radio – “Venäjä vaikuttaa öljyn hintaan ja öljy Venäjään” (Russia affects oil prices and the oil affects Russia).

The impact of Russia on oil prices is on the rise and the impact of oil prices on Russia rises too. How has Russia become more active? Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen, Russian energy policy professor, and energy analyst Vesa Ahoniemi are interviewed.

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Sports fields and corporate governmentality

Routledge published a new book edited by Natalie Koch “Critical Geographies of Sport : Space, Power and Sport in Global Perspective”. The volume contains a chapter by Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen, titled “Sports fields and corporate governmentality: Gazprom’s all-Russian gas program as energopower”.

The chapter scrutinizes Russia’s state controlled gas company Gazprom’s relationship with the population by looking at the construction of sports facilities tied to the all-Russian gas program. Discursive and coercive governmentality come together in the energopower practiced by Gazprom: via amalgamation of energy and sports the “presence” of the state is made concrete through both gas pipelines and spatially-extensive sport facilities. Gazprom’s program advances the Great Power ambitions of Putin’s regime in the name of social “responsibility”, yet the sports-orientated social program aims ultimately to responsibilization of individuals to take care of both the wellbeing of the self and the nation, its economy and military might. Its unique form of corporate governmentality is the matrimony of the energy superpower ideal and military Great Power identity that are constructed with the help of sports metaphors, values, and infrastructures.

Get the chapter here.

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Future of the Arctic

On 30th of November a session on the Arctic future was held at Tiedekulma. Professor Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen took part in the discussion, the theme of which was “Finland, the Great Powers and the Arctic region”.

 

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Russia’s Nuclear Power and Finland’s Foreign Policy

A new article by Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen was published “Russia’s Nuclear Power and Finland’s Foreign Policy” in the latest issue of Russian Analytical Digest.

It is a widely shared wisdom that energy is a central component in Russia’s foreign policy. The public discussion in Finland of the Fennovoima nuclear power plant, built now by Rosatom, shifted after the onset of the Ukrainian conflict. The insistence by some Finnish political and economic actors that the Russian nuclear power deal has nothing to do with foreign and security policies is worrying, as the measures taken both by the Finnish and Russian actors clearly demonstrate that the nuclear business, in particular, is highly political.

Read the full issue and the article (pp. 2-5) here.