I’d also disagree with characterisation of the Ukrainian Deputy PM’s talk as presentating the conflict with Russia as a clash of civilisations. Rather she portrayed the root result of the problem as Russia’s disregard for democracy. You might disagree with this but it is a widely held view outside Ukraine that Russia’s actions in Crimea and the Donbas were in large part prompted by the prospect of Ukraine moving closer to the EU with its democratic standards and helping undermining the legitimacy of the Putin regime. As well as appealing to lingering great Russian chauvinism towards Ukraine as a way of papering over the domestic democratic deficit and economic problems. I fail to see why this is an unhelpful framing of the problem and why it should be the job of universities to counter this “narrative” as you suggest.

Otherwise I would agree with the nub of your argument that Australia isn’t as well equipped with Russia-expertise as it was in the Cold War and it would be nice if it could be strengthened again as Russian influence becomes more salient globally. But also worth being aware that our expertise was never that great at a time when Russia’s importance was much higher than today.