Episodes
-
Today’s guest is Dr. Marlene Laruelle, the director of Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies and the Illiberalism Studies Program at George Washington University. On this episode of The Russia Guy, Dr. Laruelle discussed her 2021 book, “Is Russia Fascist? Unraveling Propaganda East and West,” and its relevance to today’s crisis in Ukraine. We focused specifically on the book’s insights into Russian geopolitics and post-colonialism.
Read more about the book here!
Timestamps for this episode:
(3:02) Is the book about Putin or Russia? (4:10) What’s the role of Russian illiberalism in the current Ukraine crisis? (6:40) Why is Russia pressing its case in Ukraine at precisely this moment? (8:46) Would Russia get along better with a more illiberal Europe? (11:34) Vladimir Putin vs. Charles de Gaulle (14:59) Russia’s post-imperial struggle (22:37) Normalcy for Russia vs. normalcy for the WestMusic and audio for "The Russia Guy":
Joey Pecoraro, "Russian Dance" Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки” Oi Čorna by Yale Women's Slavic Chorus (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US) Table Dance by The Underscore Orkestra (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US)Support this show on Patreon!
-
This is to notify listeners of a special installment of The Russia Guy that utilizes “Music + Talk,” Anchor’s Spotify integration, for a music-focused episode featuring music journalist Aleksandr Gorbachev, who selected five recent Russian songs that signify for him the state of affairs and everyday life in Russia now. The episode is available exclusively on Spotify here and on Telegram here.
-
Missing episodes?
-
This episode’s guest is Nikolaus von Twickel, a journalist-turned-analyst who specializes on the war in eastern Ukraine. He is now an editor at the Center for Liberal Modernity in Berlin, and he previously served as a media liaison officer for the OSCE Monitoring Mission in Donetsk. In 2020, he co-authored a book with Thomas de Waal called “Beyond Frozen Conflict: Scenarios for the Separatist Disputes of Eastern Europe,” which looks at the Donbas, Transdniestria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorny Karabakh.
Follow Nikolaus on Twitter!
Timestamps for this episode:
(2:22) Welcome back and introduction (6:13) Nikolaus explains why he thinks Russia has mobilized its troops outside Ukraine (8:45) Is it nonsense for Russia to claim that Kyiv is considering an assault on the Donbas? (15:49) Is Minsk II the only way forward diplomatically in the Donbas or is it now a dead agreement? (19:36) Is Zelensky still viewed in the West as pragmatic? (22:17) Can Russia claim to defend the interests of people in the Donbas if the breakaway “republics” are police states? (28:48) Outro and closing plug for donations!Music and audio for "The Russia Guy":
Joey Pecoraro, "Russian Dance" Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки”Support the show at Patreon!
-
Elena Chernenko, a special correspondent at the newspaper Kommersant who focuses on cybersecurity, non-proliferation, and arms control, joins the show to talk about arriving at foreign-affairs journalism, navigating Russia's contemporary media environment, and staying sane in an increasingly crazy world.
Joey Pecoraro, "Russian Dance"Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки”
Follow her on Twitter here.
Music and audio for "The Russia Guy":Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)
-
On today's episode, Kevin speaks to the scholars behind the new book “Navalny: Putin's Nemesis, Russia's Future?” The three authors: Jan Matti Dollbaum, a postdoctoral researcher at Bremen University, Morvan Lallouet, a PhD candidate at the University of Kent, and Ben Noble, a lecturer in Russian Politics at University College London.
Joey Pecoraro, "Russian Dance"Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки”
Music and audio for "The Russia Guy":Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)
-
Today's show welcomes back Anton Barbashin, a political analyst focusing on Russia and the editorial director at Riddle, for a conversation about the different schools of thought and general drift and direction of foreign-policy expertise inside Russia.
Joey Pecoraro, "Russian Dance"Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки”Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)
Follow Anton on Twitter here and read Ivan Timofeyev's Valdai Club article here (in Russian), which is cited during the interview.
Music and audio for "The Russia Guy": -
Today's guest is Dr. Sam Greene, the director of the Russia Institute at King’s College London and the co-author of the 2019 book “Putin V. the People: The Perilous Politics of a Divided Russia."
Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки”Счастье вдруг (из х/ф Иван Васильевич меняет профессию)
Music and audio for "The Russia Guy":Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)
-
Matthew Luxmoore, a Moscow-based correspondent for RFE/RL, discusses his March 2021 article about an amateur researcher in Tomsk named Denis Karagodin who’s spent the better part of a decade compiling archival documents about the execution of his great-grandfather in 1938 by officers in the NKVD. Earlier this year, the local authorities reportedly started building a criminal case against Karagodin on defamation charges filed by the relatives of some of his grandfather’s supposed executioners.
Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки”Счастье вдруг (из х/ф Иван Васильевич меняет профессию)
Read the article at RFE/RL here and follow Matt on Twitter here.
Music and audio for "The Russia Guy":Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)
-
Today's guest is Sergei Khazov-Cassia, a correspondent in Moscow for RFE/RL's Russian Service. In this interview, Kevin asks Sergei about his recent investigative report on industrial-scale oil theft in Russia.
Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки”Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)
Read an English-language translation of the story, “The Great Russian Oil Heist,” right here.
Music and audio for "The Russia Guy": -
Today's guest is Mary Ilyushina, a Moscow-based journalist and producer at CNN who previously worked at RBC. She’s recently worked on stories like the Navalny trial and the protests in Russia, as well as in Belarus, and she was kind enough to come on this podcast to talk about her career, her upbringing, and just generally her life.
Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки”Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)
Follow Mary on Twitter here.
Music and audio for "The Russia Guy": -
Today's episode is a co-hosted news-in-review show with Canadian journalist Neil Hauer about political unrest in Yerevan (where Neil is based), Amnesty International's leaked internal decision to revoke Alexey Navalny's prisoner-of-conscience status, and Team Navalny's efforts to open a campaign office in Dagestan.
Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки”Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)
Follow Neil on Twitter here and support his journalism at Patreon here.
Music and audio for "The Russia Guy": -
This episode's guest is Anton Barbashin, the editorial director at Riddle, an online publication that focuses on Russian affairs and features some of the sharpest expert insights in the field, particularly from young specialists and scholars. From 2015 to 2018, Anton was a managing editor of Intersection, a Warsaw-based Russian affairs journal, and he's worked as an analyst at the Center for Polish-Russian Dialogue and Understanding. His writings have also appeared at Foreign Affairs, The American Interest, openDemocracy Russia, Forbes Russia, and more.
Follow Anton Barbashin on Twitter here.
Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки”Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)
Music and audio for "The Russia Guy": -
Reuters special correspondent Polina Ivanova discusses her November 2020 article “The Woman Who Fell From the Sky,” about Star City (the secretive home of Russia's space program) and about the death of Natalya Lebedeva, a doctor who found herself caught up in the confusion and panic of the pandemic’s early days. Incidentally, Longform.org selected the text as one of the best science long-reads of 2020.
Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки”Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)
Follow Polina on Twitter here.
Music and audio for "The Russia Guy": -
Today's guest is Samantha Berkhead, a news editor at The Moscow Times, where she’s reported on all manner of things over the past two years, including Internet memes, Tolstoy’s descendants living in the sticks, witchcraft, queer culture, kinky parties (more about this in the interview), feminism, and a lot, lot more.
Follow her on Twitter here and at The Moscow Times here.Music and audio for "The Russia Guy":
Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки”Счастье вдруг (из х/ф Иван Васильевич меняет профессию)Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)
-
Today's guest is Dr. Leslie Root, a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Demography at UC Berkeley. Dr. Root recently completed "Fertility in Transition in 21st-Century Russia," a dissertation on childbearing and fertility changes over the course of the Putin era in Russia.
Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки”Счастье вдруг (из х/ф Иван Васильевич меняет профессию)
Follow Leslie on Twitter here, and visit her website here.
Music and audio for "The Russia Guy":Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)
-
Today's guest is Alex Kliment, the creative director at GZERO Media, Eurasia Group's global-politics-oriented independent media spinoff, where he directs “Puppet Regime,” a political satire puppet series. Additionally, Alex is the senior editor of Eurasia Group’s global politics newsletter, “Signal.” Alex also composes film scores, and he’s put that musical talent to work for GZERO, as well.
Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки”Счастье вдруг (из х/ф Иван Васильевич меняет профессию)Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)
Follow Alex on Twitter here and watch "Puppet Regime" on YouTube here.
Music and audio for "The Russia Guy": -
Today's guest is Jack Stubbs, the European cybersecurity correspondent at the news agency Reuters and previously a correspondent in Russia and Ukraine. About a week ago, on October 1, 2020, Jack authored an exclusive story at Reuters, titled “Russian Operation Masqueraded as Right-Wing News Site to Target U.S. Voters,” about people connected to the infamous Internet Research Agency — that troll factory founded by Evgeny Prigozhin — running a fake news outlet designed to target right-wing voters with inflammatory political messaging ahead of this year’s U.S. presidential election. According to sources familiar with an FBI probe, this is the right-wing version of a nearly identical project that targeted American leftists called Peace Data.
Alexandr Kuzminyh, CC BY license, "TOP 12 CARTOONS ON THE GUITAR (SOVIET CARTOONS)"Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки”Thinking Music by Kevin MacLeod / Link / LicenseThe Bandit by Kevin MacLeod / Link / LicenseSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)
Follow Jack Stubbs on Twitter here and read his work at Reuters here.
Music and audio for "The Russia Guy": -
Today's guest is Ben Aris, the editor-in-chief of bne IntelliNews, a media outlet he pioneered that reports on business news and data from emerging markets. Ben spent many years as a foreign correspondent in Eastern Europe, and he’s been covering Russia since 1993, with stints in the Baltics and Central Asia. He co-founded bne and is a former Moscow bureau chief for The Daily Telegraph and was a contributing editor at The Banker and Euromoney for a decade.
Alexandr Kuzminyh, CC BY license, "TOP 12 CARTOONS ON THE GUITAR (SOVIET CARTOONS)"Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки”
Follow Ben Aris on Twitter here.
Music and audio for "The Russia Guy":Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)
-
Bryan MacDonald, the head of the online Russia desk at the English-language edition of Russia Today, or RT, joins “The Russia Guy” to discuss his career in journalism and his views on Alexey Navalny, Western reporting, and Russian politics.
Follow him on Twitter here.
Music and audio for "The Russia Guy":
Ну погоди, episode 14Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки”Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)
-
Today’s guest is Anna Arutunyan, a Russian-American analyst and writer and the author of “The Putin Mystique: Inside Russia’s Power Cult” (2014) and “The Media in Russia” (2009) and the co-author of “Freedom, Repression, and Private Property in Russia” (2013). Her work has been published all over the place, and one of her most recent articles was released on August 5 in the magazine Foreign Affairs, titled “There Is No Russian Plot Against America.”
Follow Anna on Twitter here!
Music and audio for "The Russia Guy":
Ну погоди, episode 14Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки”Thinking Music by Kevin MacLeod / Link / LicenseThe Bandit by Kevin MacLeod / Link / LicenseSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock) - Show more
