The Aspen Institute

In collaboration with the Aspen Security Forum

Featuring Brookings Institution Senior Fellow and former Trump White House NSC Russia official Fiona Hill, Director General of the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service Mikk Marran, and Rep. Ruben Gallego, chair of the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations and member of the House Armed Services Committee. This conversation will explore the US and its allies’ response to Russia’s assault on Ukraine, what more can be done to strengthen Ukraine’s position in its fight against Russia, and whether President Putin’s power might be threatened from within the Kremlin. This session will be moderated by New Yorker columnist Susan Glasser. Following that, Anti-Corruption Foundation Executive Director Vladimir Ashurkov will then offer his perspective on the Russian invasion in a fireside chat. To close out the evening, Deputy Attorney General of the United States Lisa Monaco and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo will team up to discuss unprecedented US sanctions and export controls on Russia. Yachts may steal the headlines, but our panel will also discuss how limiting Russia’s access to critical technology and sanctioning Russia’s defense-industrial base is a crucial part of the sanctions strategy.

 Congressman Ruben Gallego represents the 7th District of Arizona in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is a Marine Corps combat veteran, the son of Latino immigrants, and was the first in his family to attend college, graduating from Harvard University. Congressman Gallego enlisted in the Marine Corps and deployed to Iraq in 2005 as an infantryman, serving with Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines. In Congress, he is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and chair of the Intelligence and Special Operations subcommittee, a member of the House Committee on Veterans, and a member of the House Natural Resources Committee.

Fiona Hill is a senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution. She served as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia from 2006-2009 and senior director for Europe and Russia at the National Security Council from 2017-2019. She is author of “There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century” and co-author of “Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin.”

  Mikk Marran is the Director General of the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service since 1 January 2016. He started his career at the Estonian Defense Ministry in 1999, and eventually assumed the position of the Permanent Secretary in 2011 until 2015. From 2010 to 2011 he served as the Undersecretary for Defense Investments, prior to that as the Defense Counselor at the Permanent Representation of Estonia to NATO. Mr. Marran holds a M.S. in National Resource Strategy from the National
Defense University and a B.A. from Tallinn University.

Susan Glasser is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where she writes a weekly column on Washington. A former editor in chief of several Washington publications, including Politico and Foreign Policy, and foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, she is also a CNN global affairs analyst and co-author with her husband Peter Baker of the bestseller The Man Who Ran Washington and the forthcoming book on Trump in the White House, The Divider.

 Vladimir Ashurkov is a Russian opposition politician currently living in London.  In 2011, he established the non-profit Anti-Corruption Foundation, of which he is now the Executive Director.  In 2014, as a result of politically motivated criminal persecution by Russian authorities, Mr. Ashurkov moved to London, receiving political asylum in 2015. Prior to pursuing civil and political activities, Mr. Ashurkov worked in finance and investments.  Mr. Ashurkov received his MBA from the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania.  He also graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

Wally Adeyemo serves as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. He has been at the center of many of the country’s major economic policy decisions since the 2008 Financial Crisis and has worked in organizations across the public, private, and non-profit sectors to build a stronger and fairer economy. As Deputy Secretary, Adeyemo serves as the Treasury Department’s number two official and chief operating officer and has taken a leading role in Treasury’s national security, economic inequality, and pandemic-related economic recovery work. Adeyemo previously served at Treasury during the Obama Administration as Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff under Secretary Tim Geithner and Secretary Jack Lew. Adeyemo also served as the first Chief of Staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before moving to the Obama White House in 2015. At the White House, Adeyemo served as Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics and a Deputy Director of the National Economic Council. In this role, Adeyemo led policymaking on international finance, trade and investment, energy, and environmental issues and served as President Obama’s representative to the G7 and G20. After leaving government in 2017, Adeyemo served as the first president of the Obama Foundation and as a Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and at BlackRock. Adeyemo holds a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Lisa O. Monaco is the 39th Deputy Attorney General of the United States.  As the Deputy Attorney General, she is the Department’s second-ranking official and is responsible for the overall supervision of the Department.  The Deputy Attorney General serves as the Chief Operating Officer, and the Department’s litigating and policy components, law enforcement agencies, and 93 U.S. Attorneys report to the Deputy.  The Deputy Attorney General advises and assists the Attorney General in formulating and implementing the Department’s policies and programs. A 16-year veteran of the Department of Justice, Deputy Attorney General Monaco served as a career federal prosecutor and in several leadership positions across the Department.  She began her Justice Department career as Counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno and went on to serve as an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) for the District of Columbia, where she was a member of the Enron Task Force and received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, the Department’s highest award.  She thereafter served in several leadership roles:  Chief of Staff at the Federal Bureau of Investigation to then Director Robert S. Mueller, III; Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General; and Assistant Attorney General for National Security, the first woman to hold that position.  From 2013-2017, Deputy Attorney General Monaco was the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor to the President.  In that role, she coordinated the Executive Branch’s policy and response to a wide range of security issues – including the response to international and domestic terrorist incidents, cyber threats, and natural disasters – and advised the President on all aspects of counterterrorism policy and strategy. Deputy Attorney General Monaco has served in private practice and taught national security law.  She was born and raised in Massachusetts and is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Chicago Law School.