Podcasts about eurasian studies

Part 1:We talk with Jeet Heer.Jeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent forThe Nationand host of the weeklyNation podcast,The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column Morbid Symptoms. The author ofIn Love with Art: Francoise Moulys Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman(2013) andSweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles(2014), Heer has written for numerous publications, includingThe New Yorker,The Paris Review,Virginia Quarterly Review,The American Prospect,The Guardian,The New Republic,andThe Boston Globe.We discuss the adoption of crypto currency funds, first, by Trump, for the nation, and by the governor of New Hampshire for New Hampshire. More states will likely follow.We note that most of the crypto investment is from the Middle East. It may destabilize the US dollar, and has many other problems. Unfortunately, both Republicans and Democrats are buying into crypto. We discuss the implications for the future.Part 2:We talk with Professor Peter Rutland.Peter Rutland has taught at Wesleyan since 1989. Before that he taught at the University of Texas at Austin, and at the University of York and London University in the UK. He has a BA from Oxford and a D. Phil from York. He has also been a visiting professor at Columbia University, and is an associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. His research interests focus on all things Russian and places where the Russian boot has trod (Nicholas II) in the former Soviet Union and the former East Europe. He started off studying workers and the Communist Party, moving on to broader questions of economic policy in the socialist and post-socialist economies. Along the way he developed an interest in nationalism and ethnic conflict. Since 2013 he has been editor in chief of Nationalities Papers, the journal of the Association for the Study of Nationalities along with serving as associate editor of Russian Review.We discuss the image that Putin is creating of himself in Russia. His control of all media in Russia allows him to present whatever facet he likes to give the Russians the image of a 'humble man of the people', and his propaganda is framed in such a way to make him seem to be 'defending' Russia. We also look at how Trump has also adopted this strategy to present himself to US voters. WNHNFM.ORG  productionMusic: David Rovics

This week, Chris and Matt unpack the deepening chaos at the Pentagon as Pete Hegseth's tenure as secretary of defense continues to spiral. From more leaked strike plans on Signal to staff purges and his wife sitting in on sensitive meetings, the dysfunction is reaching new lows. Then, a little-known Russian spymaster emerges as a key player in Ukraine peace talks, just as far-right ideologues inside Russia insist on total victory at any cost. Plus, listener questions on Europe's military independence, Bulgaria's role in Russian espionage, and the EU's Orbán problem. Subscribe and share to stay ahead in the world of intelligence, geopolitics, and current affairs. Please share this episode using these links Audio: https://pod.fo/e/2cd1a9 YouTube: https://youtu.be/p2hm0KZYiYk Articles discussed in today's episode "Info Hegseth shared with wife and brother came from top general's secure messages" by Courtney Kube & Gordon Lubold | NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/info-pete-hegseth-shared-wife-brother-came-top-generals-secure-message-rcna198838 "Under Hegseth, Chaos Prevails at the Pentagon" by Greg Jaffe & Helene Cooper | The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/us/politics/hegseth-chaos-pentagon.html "The White House is looking to replace Pete Hegseth as defense secretary" by Tom Bowman & Quil Lawrence | NPR: https://www.npr.org/2025/04/21/nx-s1-5371312/trump-white-house-pete-hegseth-defense-department "Hegseth Said to Have Shared Attack Details in Second Signal Chat" by Greg Jaffe, Eric Schmitt & Maggie Haberman | The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/20/us/politics/hegseth-yemen-attack-second-signal-chat.html "Two top Pentagon officials placed on leave in leak probe" by Daniel Lippman & Jack Detsch | Politico: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/15/caldwell-pentagon-leaks-00291735 "Real reason Pete Hegseth's wife Jennifer Rauchet won't let him out of her sight …and the secret nickname she has earned from Pentagon staffers" by Susan Greene | Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14636555/pete-hegseth-wife-jennifer-rauchet-pentagon-secret-nickname-staffers.html "Who is Sergey Beseda, Russian spy handler leading talks with US?" by Kateryna Denisova | The Kyiv Independent: https://kyivindependent.com/sergey-beseda-russias-negotiator-in-saudi-arabia-and-his-role-in-ukraines-war/ "The Russian Nationalists Pushing for Ukraine's Destruction" by Giovanni Pigni | New Lines Magazine: https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-russian-nationalists-pushing-for-victory-in-ukraine/ "Sweden's Bigger Badder Gripen Fighter Packs A Lot Of Punch In An Incredibly Efficient Package" by Jamie Hunter | The War Zone: https://www.twz.com/39081/swedens-bigger-badder-gripen-fighter-packs-a-lot-of-punch-in-an-incredibly-efficient-package "Escalating Trade War Raises Questions Over Canada's F-35 Future" by Thomas Newdick | The War Zone: https://www.twz.com/air/escalating-trade-war-raises-questions-over-canadas-f-35-future "A Weak Link in NATO? Bulgaria, Russia, and the Lure of Espionage" by Mark Kramer | Davis Center for Russian & Eurasian Studies: https://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/insights/weak-link-nato-bulgaria-russia-and-lure-espionage Thanks for listener questions from Julie, Sam, and Richard! Support Secrets and Spies Become a “Friend of the Podcast” on Patreon for £3/$4: https://www.patreon.com/SecretsAndSpies Buy merchandise from our Redbubble shop: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/60934996 Subscribe to our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDVB23lrHr3KFeXq4VU36dg For more information about the podcast, check out our website: https://secretsandspiespodcast.com Connect with us on social media Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/secretsandspies.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/secretsandspies Facebook: https://facebook.com/secretsandspies Spoutible: https://spoutible.com/SecretsAndSpies Follow Chris and Matt on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fultonmatt.bsky.social https://bsky.app/profile/chriscarrfilm.bsky.social Secrets and Spies is produced by F & P LTD. Music by Andrew R. Bird Photos by Eric Lee/NYT and Sgt. 1st Class Marisol Walker/US Army Secrets and Spies sits at the intersection of intelligence, covert action, real-world espionage, and broader geopolitics in a way that is digestible but serious. Hosted by filmmaker Chris Carr and writer Matt Fulton, each episode unpacks global events through the lens of intelligence and geopolitics, featuring expert insights from former spies, authors, and analysts.

To what extent were Soviet engagements with the Third World characterized by solidarity during the Cold War? And to what extent did these same engagements conceal imperial ambitions? In this episode of the Transformative Podcast, Alessandro Iandolo (UCL) talks to Rosamund Johnston (RECET) about how concrete development projects could be viewed quite differently by the different actors involved. He also talks about how his own perspective on these projects has changed, as he approaches them in his new research from different angles. If all of those involved came to be almost in agreement on one point, he argues, it was that the world-building exercises they were involved in were somehow second best when compared to the material and intellectual resources of an imagined West. Alessandro Iandolo is a lecturer at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, specializing in the history of the Soviet Union in the world. His first book, Arrested Development: The Soviet Union in Ghana, Guinea, and Mali, 1955-1968, explored the Soviet Union's economic partnership with three newly-independent countries in West Africa during the Khrushchev era, winning the W. Bruce Lincoln prize for the best first monograph in Russian History, and the Marshall D. Shulman prize for the best monograph on the internationalrelations of the USSR from the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies.

Aurel Braun, professor of international relations and political science, University of Toronto and Centre Associate for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University For more of the Shaye Ganam Show, subscribe to the podcast. https://globalnews.ca/calgary/program/shaye-ganam/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aurel Braun, professor of international relations and political science, University of Toronto and Centre Associate for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University For more of the Shaye Ganam Show, subscribe to the podcast. https://globalnews.ca/calgary/program/shaye-ganam/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An Ashland educator is helping to develop lesson plans about Ukrainian history and current events for American high school students. Paul Huard, an AP U.S. History teacher at Ashland High School, has traveled to Poland and Ukraine in recent summers to do humanitarian relief work as the country continues to resist a Russian invasion. From a colleague there, he learned about the “On Ukraine” project through Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. Huard and a handful of other educators selected to participate in the program have been working with letters, documents and other primary sources from the Lviv Center for Urban History to develop teaching materials for American educators. He joins us with more details on the project and why it’s important for American students to learn about Ukraine.

African American journalist Terrell Jermain Starr sees the Story of Ukrainian resilience as a Black experience. Russia is not only a colonial state, but it's also a supremacist state, he says. Terrell has made it his mission to build bridges of trust between Americans and Ukraine. This is clearly vital, as he explains that African Americans are some of the most exposed people to Russian propaganda and disinformation within the US. Today we'll be exploring the parallels to discrimination faced by Black people in the US, with centuries long persecution of Ukrainian identity by the Russian Empire. ---------- Terrell Jermaine Starr is the host and founder of Black Diplomats Official YouTube channel, where he posts regular dispatches from Ukraine that feature underrepresented voices and share how civilians are living through the war. Terrell was in Ukraine when the war broke out and provided daily video reports via Twitter that generated millions of views and dozens of appearances on network television where he spoke to millions of people around the world. What makes his work so interesting is that he explains the Russian colonialism that Ukrainians experience through the lens of white supremacy that Black people in the United States and around the world have endured. He helps people get past the challenge of seeing Ukrainians as merely white and, therefore, unable to be oppressed. Before Terrell focused on Ukraine full-time, he reported for various Black-owned and run media outlets in the U.S., including The Root where he was a national correspondent and covered presidential, state and local politics. He has a master's degree in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies and a second in Journalism from the University of Illinois. He graduated from Philander Smith College, a historically Black school, with a bachelors in English. ---------- LINKS: https://www.youtube.com/@BlackDiplomatsOfficial https://www.instagram.com/terrelljstarr/?hl=en https://bsky.app/profile/terrelljstarr.bsky.social https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61569344763189 https://x.com/terrelljstarr https://terrellstarr.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/terrellstarrukraine/ Terrell's fundraiser to create a series on black people in Ukraine: https://x.com/terrelljstarr/status/1861449586188984699 ---------- ARTICLES: https://euromaidanpress.com/2024/05/28/story-of-ukraine-is-a-black-experience-says-african-american-reporter/ https://www.ukrainer.net/terrell-star/ https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/19/person-of-interest-terrell-jermaine-starr-00018630 ---------- SILICON CURTAIN FILM FUNDRAISER A project to make a documentary film in Ukraine, to raise awareness of Ukraine's struggle and in supporting a team running aid convoys to Ukraine's frontline towns. https://buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain/extras ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND: Save Ukraine https://www.saveukraineua.org/ Superhumans - Hospital for war traumas https://superhumans.com/en/ UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukraine https://unbroken.org.ua/ Come Back Alive https://savelife.in.ua/en/ Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchen https://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraine UNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyy https://u24.gov.ua/ Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation https://prytulafoundation.org NGO “Herojam Slava” https://heroiamslava.org/ kharpp - Reconstruction project supporting communities in Kharkiv and Przemyśl https://kharpp.com/ NOR DOG Animal Rescue https://www.nor-dog.org/home/ ----------

As information continues to come in related to the launching of US-made missiles from Ukraine into Russia, we bring in Visiting scholar at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University Mikhail Troitskiy to analyze whether this action could prompt a severe Russian response, and also how he believes the now 1,000-day war between the two nations could end, if at all. Also, Vince and Erik expand upon the legacy Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy will leave in Green Bay once he retires next summer.

As information continues to come in related to the launching of US-made missiles from Ukraine into Russia, we bring in Visiting scholar at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University Mikhail Troitskiy to analyze whether this action could prompt a severe Russian response, and also how he believes the now 1,000-day war between the two nations could end, if at all.

About the Lecture: Georgia's 26,000 rivers connect citizens to nature, to their childhood, to their unique regions, each of which has its “mother-river.” The sounds of rushing water as well as the sights and scents of riverside gatherings provoke powerful memories and remain central to Georgian identity. Rivers also form the republic's economic backbone. This presentation will focus on late Soviet Georgia, when hydroelectricity and gravel taken from riverside quarries joined irrigation and fishing as key contributors to Georgia's development. Decisions on how to use rivers—at the republic and everyday level—governed the type of state and the spaces where Georgians worked and lived. These decisions, often haphazard and sometimes reversed, manifest a far more complicated dynamic than a simple dichotomy between modernization and conservation. They also implicated a wide range of actors beyond government and expert circles. Rivers themselves, finally, were far from passive actors in these decisions and contests. This presentation, based on oral histories, ethnography and archival sources, will blend human and non-human histories as well as deconstruct late Soviet Georgian state and society through riverine interactions. About the Speaker: Jeff Sahadeo is a professor at the Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada). He received his PhD in History from the University of Illinois. He is the author of Russian Colonial Society in Tashkent, 1865-1923 (Indiana University Press, 2007) and Voices from the Soviet Edge: Southern Migrants in Leningrad and Moscow (Cornell University Press, 2019). He has published in Slavic Review, Journal of Modern History, Central Asian Survey and other major outlets. His first article from his current project on rivers in tsarist and Soviet Georgia, “The Mtkvari River's Many Faces: Symbolism, Space and Agency in Late Imperial Tiflis,” is available open access at https://doi.org/10.22215/cjers.v17i1.4436

Solidarity Networking and Ukrainian Mental Maps: Russia's War against Ukraine and The February 24th Archive Project About the Lecture: I am an East European intellectual and political historian by training, and a student of map prejudices by practice. For a digitally activist Ukraine, the February 24th Archive is a polyphonic treasure trove of solidarity and resistance to Russia's war of aggression. My archive bridges six main multilingual groups: (1) professionally trained field experts in Ukrainian Studies; (2) interested nonspecialists in and beyond academe; (3) leading journalists; (4) OSINT amateurs and mapmakers, who catalogue war crimes and build cases with evidence for criminal prosecution; (5) diplomats and policymakers; and (6) most crucially, a voting citizenry that crosses ideological lines, hoping to raise literacy against malignant disinformation. While we commonly think about how social media divides and polarizes in 2024, I will introduce strategies on how I have worked against over the past three years against currents of unseen algorithms on digital platforms. I take inspiration for my ongoing Twitter/X war archive from scholarly work in the history of social and radical cartography, and ongoing Ukrainian war documenting projects. My goal for the February 24th Archive is to respect Ukrainian privacy and ethical issues toward a future Nuremberg tribunal moment, while basing a rolling public war digital record in a daily working Global Commons which is too often flooded with disinformation. About the Speaker: Steven Seegel is Professor of Slavic and Eurasian Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Map Men: Transnational Lives and Deaths of Geographers in the Making of East Central Europe (University of Chicago Press, 2018); just translated into Russian (Academic Studies Press, 2024); Ukraine under Western Eyes (Harvard University Press, 2013); and Mapping Europe's Borderlands: Russian Cartography in the Age of Empire (University of Chicago Press, 2012). He has been a contributor to Chicago's international history of cartography series, and he has translated over 300 entries from Russian and Polish for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945, in multiple volumes, published jointly by USHMM and Indiana University Press. Professor Seegel is a former director at Harvard University of the Ukrainian Research Institute's summer exchange program. From 2019 to 2022, he hosted 89 author-feature podcast interviews on the popular New Books Network. He is the founder of The February 24th Archive, an ongoing 24-hour community-driven, public-facing digital project focused on building global solidarity for Ukrainians, with 1000s of threads and averaging 30 million people in 75 countries per month across the world. Professor Seegel was awarded the Vega Medal of 2024 by the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (SSAG) for his scientific contributions to human geography. He received the gold medal from King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden on 22 April, celebrated annually as Earth Day.

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Keith Brown, a distinguished anthropologist from Arizona State University's Melikian Center. Dr. Brown takes us on a deep dive into the rich and often contentious history of Macedonia, exploring the complexities of historiography and the narratives that shape our understanding of the Balkan region. Join us as Dr. Brown shares his unique journey into the study of Macedonia, revealing how personal and historical narratives intertwine in the pursuit of knowledge. PRODUCER'S NOTE: This episode was recorded on December 02, 2023 at the ASEEES Convention in Philadelphia. If you have questions, comments, or would like to be a guest on the show, please email slavxradio@utexas.edu and we will be in touch! PRODUCTION CREDITS Host/Assistant Producer: Taylor Helmcamp Host/Supervising Producer: Nicholas Pierce Assistant EP: Misha Simanovskyy (@MSimanovskyy) Associate Producer: Cullan Bendig (@cullanwithana) Associate Producer: Sergio Glajar Production Assistant: Faith VanVleet Production Assistant: Eliza Fisher SlavX Editorial Director: Sam Parrish Main Theme by Charlie Harper and additional background music by kaleidoplasm, Holizna, Crowander, Blue Dot Sessions, Ketsa, Eazy) Executive Producer & Creator: Michelle Daniel (@MSDaniel) www.msdaniel.com DISCLAIMER: Texas Podcast Network is brought to you by the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. Podcasts are produced by faculty members and staffers at UT Austin who work with University Communications to craft content that adheres to journalistic best practices. The University of Texas at Austin offers these podcasts at no charge. Podcasts appearing on the network and this webpage represent the views of the hosts, not of The University of Texas at Austin. https://files.fireside.fm/file/fireside-uploads/images/9/9a59b135-7876-4254-b600-3839b3aa3ab1/P1EKcswq.png Special Guest: Keith Brown.

THE ZOOMER SQUAD: DO SENIORS' DISCOUNTS STILL MAKE SENSE GIVEN THEIR GROWING WEALTH? Guest Host Tasha Kheiriddin is joined by Bill VanGorder, Chief Advocacy and Education Officer of CARP, Bob Richardson, a public affairs consultant, and John Wright, Executive Vice President of Maru Public Opinion. Statistics Canada data show 6% of seniors live in poverty, compared to 11.1% of other adults, raising questions about the fairness of senior discounts. Tasha and panelists discuss the need (or not) for senior discounts and the latest top up to Old Age Security. CAA SURVEY FINDS OVER HALF OF ONTARIO DRIVERS ENGAGE IN DANGEROUS BEHAVIOURS Tasha is now joined by Michael Stewart, Community Relations Consultant for CAA South Central Ontario. A CAA South Central Ontario (CAA SCO) study found that 55 per cent of Ontario motorists engaged in risky driving behaviours last year. Tasha and Michael discuss how good or bad these numbers are. RUSSIA AND THE WEST COMPLETE HISTORIC PRISONER SWAP Tasha is now joined by Dr. Maria Popova, Associate Professor of Political Science and Jean Monnet Chair at McGill University and Dr. Paul Goode, McMillan Chair in Russian Studies at the Institute of European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at Carleton University. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Security Consultant Paul Whelan, and dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza returned to the U.S. last Thursday morning after a historic prisoner swap involving Russia and Western allies. The exchange, the largest since the Cold War, included 24 detainees across seven countries. Was this a good deal? Tasha and guests discuss.

Much of the critical writing about authoritarianism warns that contemporary populism threatens democracy. But as Stephen Hanson and Jeffrey Kopstein argue in their interesting new book, The Assault on the State, this global attack on legalistic government by wannabe dictators like Putin, Erdogan and Modi endangers not just democracy but also much of what we take for granted about the convenience of modern life. It's a return to what they call the “patrimonialism” of The Godfather - a chillingly dysfunctional future in which to get a road fixed or a school built, we have to kiss the ring of a Don Corleone or a Donald Trump. Weird, eh?Stephen E. Hanson is the Lettie Pate Evans Professor in the Department of Government at William & Mary.  At William & Mary, he served as the Vice Provost for Academic and International Affairs from 2011 to 2022. Hanson received his B.A. in Social Studies from Harvard University (1985) and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley (1991). He served from 2011–2021 as the Director of the Wendy and Emery Reves Center for International Studies, while also serving as Vice Provost for International Affairs at William & Mary. In 2016, William & Mary received the Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization from NAFSA: Association of International Educators. Hanson served from 2009–2011 as the Vice Provost for Global Affairs, and from 2000–2008 as the Director of the Ellison Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies at the Jackson School of International Studies, at the University of Washington, Seattle. Hanson is the author of Post-Imperial Democracies: Ideology and Party Formation in Third Republic France, Weimar Germany, and Post-Soviet Russia (Cambridge University Press, 2010) and Time and Revolution: Marxism and the Design of Soviet Institutions (University of North Carolina Press, 1997), which received the 1998 Wayne S. Vucinich book award from the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies. He is the co-author (with Richard Anderson Jr., M. Steven Fish, and Philip Roeder) of Postcommunism and the Theory of Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2001).Jeffrey Kopstein is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of California, Irvine. In his research, Professor Kopstein focuses on interethnic violence, voting patterns of minority groups, antisemitism, and anti-liberal tendencies in civil society, paying special attention to cases within European and Russian Jewish history. These interests are central topics in his latest books, Intimate Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogroms on the Eve of the Holocaust (Cornell University Press, 2018) and Politics, Memory, Violence: The New Social Science of the Holocaust (Cornell University Press, 2023).Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

In a news cycle dominated by the attempted assassination of former President Trump, give yourself a break with an update on the Russian military in year three of the Russo-Ukrainian War, with regular Midrats guest Dr. Dmitry Gorenburg.Dmitry Gorenburg is Senior Research Scientist in the Strategy, Policy, Plans, and Programs division of CNA, where he has worked since 2000. Dr. Gorenburg is an associate at the Harvard University Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and previously served as Executive Director of the American Association of the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS). His research interests include security issues in the former Soviet Union, Russian military reform, Russian foreign policy, and ethnic politics and identity. Dr. Gorenburg is author of Nationalism for the Masses: Minority Ethnic Mobilization in the Russian Federation (Cambridge University Press, 2003), and has been published in journals such as World Politics and Post-Soviet Affairs. He currently serves as editor of Problems of Post-Communism and was also editor of Russian Politics and Law from 2009 to 2016. Dr. Gorenburg received a B.A. in international relations from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University.

Vladislav Bogorov was drafted in the Bulgarian Army and had to serve as a tankman on a Soviet T-55, upon his discharge being promoted to a Junior lieutenant. Having practiced as a lawyer for 17 years, he is probably the only certified welder who has won four cases before the European Court of Human Rights. (The cases are published on the website of the Court.) Vladislav has an MSc in Law from Sofia University and an MSc in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies from the University of Glasgow. He has published 324 articles in different Bulgarian newspapers, among these the biggest ones in the country. Vladislav promoted himself as a lawyer and as an author which resulted in 44 articles in the Bulgarian press published about him. Having been born in Bulgaria, he now resides in Scotland and is a British citizen. Vladislav speaks Bulgarian, English, and Russian. 00:00 Introduction to Vladislav Bogorov 00:25 Early Life and Background 01:02 Military Service and Soviet T-55 Tanks 02:09 Environmentalism and Global Warming 03:21 Economic Challenges of Net Zero 07:39 The Case for Nuclear Energy 12:28 Misconceptions About Nuclear Safety 22:54 The Myth of Nuclear Waste 30:30 Psychological and Social Aspects of Environmentalism 35:23 The Fear Factor in Environmentalism 36:07 Historical Parallels: Socialism and Its Consequences 38:45 Youth Movements and Ideological Shifts 39:44 The Ineffectiveness of Facts Alone 40:25 Understanding Socialism and Its Implications 46:16 The Reality of Renewable Energy 58:51 The Importance of Engaging Content 01:00:38 Final Thoughts and Future Plans When History Had Other Plans, to be published in Feb 2025: https://a.co/d/4ykoJrJ ========= AI summaries of all of my podcasts: https://tomn.substack.com/p/podcast-summaries My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/tomanelson1 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL89cj_OtPeenLkWMmdwcT8Dt0DGMb8RGR X: https://twitter.com/TomANelson Substack: https://tomn.substack.com/ About Tom: https://tomn.substack.com/about

Has all changed, changed utterly with the result of yesterday’s election in France? John O'Brennan, professor in the Department of Sociology at Maynooth University and Director of the Maynooth Centre for European and Eurasian Studies, spoke to Jerry.  

Our Europe Editor Tony Connelly & Professor John O'Brennan, Jean Monnet Chair in European Integration and Director of the Maynooth Centre for European and Eurasian Studies.

Why has the Global South, historically on the receiving end of colonialism and imperialism, maintained what might be called a neutral stance towards Russia's war against Ukraine? Ivan Grek, Director of the Russia Program at George Washington University's Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, joins Aaron Schwartzbaum to discuss.For more from the Bear Market Brief newsletter, subscribe here. 

“Is Putin insane?” Vladimir Putin's speeches can offer insight into the Kremlin's political thought patterns and intentions, but they are often misunderstood. Jill Dougherty sits down with Ivan Grek, Director of the Russia Program at George Washington University's Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, who created a linguistic profile of Vladimir Putin to better understand the Russian leader's approach to statecraft.

Aurel Braun, professor of international relations and political science, University of Toronto and Centre Associate for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

GUEST 1 OVERVIEW: Alex runs the account Thinking Slow and his quest is by using facts and real science to expose and defeat the oligarchy's dystopian Great Reset agenda. http://www.thinkingcoalition.org/ GUEST 2 OVERVIEW: Ivan Katchanovski teaches at the School of Political Studies & Conflict Studies and Human Rights Program at the University of Ottawa. He was Visiting Scholar at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Politics at the State University of New York at Potsdam, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, and Kluge Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. He received his Ph.D. from the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.

►Georgia is a country between two civilizations - Europe & Asia, and Islam and Christianity ►Until the Russians came, Georgia had maintained its status as an independent state. ►Georgia has punched above its weight under Russian and Soviet rule - prime example: Stalin, the most powerful Soviet leader, was Georgian! In this conversation, Dr. Jones takes us from the ancient and Medieval history of Georgia, including its conflicts with Islamic empires and kingdoms, to its modern period of independence, and its struggle to realign itself with Europe.

The Clements Center for National Security, the Center for European Studies and the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies hosted Michael Kimmage, Professor of History at Catholic University, for a book talk on his upcoming release Collisions: The Origins of the War in Ukraine and the New Global Instability.

Cathal Malone, Thomas Coughlan & Co, Solicitors and John O'Brennan, Professor and Director of the Maynooth Centre for European and Eurasian Studies

In this episode of Stories of the UO, Gabs meets with Julia Nemirovskaya, a senior instructor of Russian East European and Eurasian Studies at the University of Oregon. Tune in to hear about her experience as a professor and teaching the Russian Through Theatre program at the UO. Stories of the UO is produced and edited by Gabriella Sgro. Graphic: Stella Fetherston/Emerald. The music used is “Yes And” by Steve Combs, licensed from Free Music Archive under License: CC BY/ creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

Erik R. Scott (Associate Professor of History, University of Kansas) gave a lecture on "Defectors: How the Illicit Flight of Soviet Citizens Built the Borders of the Cold War World" on Thursday, November 2, 2023 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive. About the lecture: Defectors fleeing the Soviet Union seized the world's attention during the Cold War. Their stories were given sensational news coverage and dramatized in spy novels and films. In contrast to other migrants, defectors were pursued by the states they left even as they were eagerly sought by the United States and its allies. Taking part in a risky game that played out across the globe, defectors sought to transcend the limitations of the Cold War world. Recently published by Oxford University Press, Defectors: How the Illicit Flight of Soviet Citizens Built the Borders of the Cold War World, is the first history of defection on a global scale. The book charts a global struggle over defectors that unfolded among rival intelligence agencies operating in the shadows of an occupied Europe, in the forbidden border zones of the USSR, in the disputed straits of the South China Sea, on a hijacked plane 10,000 feet in the air, and around the walls of Soviet embassies. Surprisingly, the competition for defectors paved the way for collusion between the superpowers, who found common cause in regulating the spaces through which defectors moved. Disputes over defectors mapped out the contours of modern state sovereignty, and defection's ideological framework hardened borders by reinforcing the view that asylum should only be granted to migrants with clear political claims. Although defection all but disappeared after the Cold War, this innovative work shows how it shaped the governance of global borders and helped forge an international refugee system whose legacy and limitations remain with us to this day. About the speaker: Erik R. Scott is Associate Professor of History and director of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Kansas. He is the author of Familiar Strangers: The Georgian Diaspora and the Evolution of Soviet Empire (OUP, 2016) and editor of The Russian Review.

In conversation with Robert E. Hamilton, Head of Eurasia Research - Eurasia Program, Foreign Policy Research Institute Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Endowed Lecture The White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times, David E. Sanger has been a member of three Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist teams, including in 2017 for international reporting. His bestselling books include The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power; Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power; and The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age, which was adapted into an award-winning HBO documentary. Sanger is also a regular contributor to CNN and teaches national security policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. In New Cold Wars, he offers an in-depth account of the United States' high-stakes struggles against two very dissimilar adversaries-Xi Jinping's China and Vladimir Putin's Russia. Colonel (Retired) Robert E. Hamilton, Ph.D., is the Head of Research at the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Eurasia Program and an Associate Professor of Eurasian Studies at the U.S. Army War College.  In a 30-year career in the U.S. Army, spent primarily as an Eurasian Foreign Area Officer, he served overseas in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Germany, Belarus, Qatar, Afghanistan, the Republic of Georgia, Pakistan and Kuwait.  He is the author of numerous articles and monographs on conflict and security issues, focusing principally on the former Soviet Union and the Balkans.  He is a graduate of the German Armed Forces Staff College and the U.S. Army War College and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Military Academy, a Master's Degree in Contemporary Russian Studies and a Ph.D. in Political Science, both from the University of Virginia. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation to keep our podcasts free for everyone. THANK YOU! (recorded 4/18/2024)

Professor John O’Brennan is professor within the Department of Sociology, Maynooth University. He holds the Jean Monnet Chair in European Integration and is director of the Maynooth Centre for European and Eurasian Studies.

Disgust, often seen as a primal and universal emotion, can reveal a lot about our values, boundaries, and cultural norms. In this week's episode, both of our storytellers are confronted with something that grosses them out. Part 1: While on a school trip in Russia, Cassandra Hartblay's vegetarian dietary restrictions keep getting tested. Part 2: As a meat lover, Jenny Kleeman has high hopes for the world's first lab-grown chicken nugget. Dr. Cassandra Hartblay is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, where she works with graduate students in Anthropology, European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, Disability Studies and Sexual Diversity Studies, as well as undergraduates in Health Humanities. She is author of the 2020 book "I Was Never Alone or Oporniki" (University of Toronto Press 2020) and numerous articles, a documentary play, and co-curator of the #CripRitual art exhibition. If you can't find her, she's probably our running or swimming with her dog, an Aussie-Retriever mix named Arlo. Jenny Kleeman is a journalist, broadcaster and author. She writes for the Guardian, the Sunday Times and The New Statesman and makes radio and podcasts for the BBC and the Times. Her latest series for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds, The Gift, tells the story of the remarkable truths that emerge when people take at-home DNA tests. On television, Jenny has reported for BBC One's Panorama, Channel 4's Dispatches and VICE News Tonight on HBO, as well as making 13 films from across the globe for Channel 4's Unreported World. Her first book, Sex Robots & Vegan Meat, was published in 2020 and has been translated into ten languages. Her second book The Price of Life, was published in March 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Russia's invasion of Ukraine to Trump threatening to pull the US from NATO, is there an increased military threat in Europe? Is it time for an EU Army to be established?Kieran was joined by John O'Brennan, Professor in the Department of Sociology at Maynooth University and Director of the Maynooth Centre for European and Eurasian Studies, Mark Price, Co-Chair of the Irish Anti War Movement and founding member of the Irish Neutrality League,..

On today's show, Lee Slusher discusses Intelligence and geopolitical hotspots. GUEST 1 OVERVIEW: Ivan Katchanovski teaches at the School of Political Studies & Conflict Studies and Human Rights Program at the University of Ottawa. He was Visiting Scholar at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Politics at the State University of New York at Potsdam, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, and Kluge Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. He received his Ph.D. from the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. GUEST 2 OVERVIEW: Lee Slusher is an international strategic security expert with nearly 25 years of analytical and operational experience supporting the U.S. intelligence community and special operations, and the private sector. Lee's career took him to many hotspots including Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, and Taiwan. He holds a strategic security master's degree from The George Washington University and is a 3-time alumnus of the Defense Language Institute (Russian, Serbo-Croatian, and Farsi) linktr.ee/leeslusher

Today's guest is a historian of the Romanian military experience Grant Thomas Harward. Grant is a historian with the US Army Center of Military History in Washington, DC. Before going to Ft. McNair, Grant was a historian with the US Army Medical Department Center of History and Heritage in San Antonio. He received his BA in History from Brigham Young University, then took an MA at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He completed his PhD at Texas A&M University, under Friend-of-the-Pod and brisket coneseur Roger Reese. Grant is the author of Romania's Holy War: Soldiers, Motivation, and the Holocaust (Cornell), which was awarded the Barbara Jelavich Book Prize by the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. He is also the co-author, with Johnny Shumate, of the forthcoming book Romania 1944: The Turning of Arms against Nazi Germany (Osprey). Grant's articles have been published in the Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Studies in Ethnicity & Nationalism, Army History, and Air & Space Power History. In 2017, he was the Norman Raab Foundation Fellow at the Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. He also held a Fulbright US Student Award to Romania in 2016-2017 and an Auschwitz Jewish Center Fellowship in 2013. Join us for a delightful and uplifting chat with Grant Harward. We'll discuss BYU quarterbacks, New Order, serving an LDS mission in Romania, the Battlefield documentary series, and the best Balkan food in DC, among many other topics. Lots packed in this one! Shoutout to Ambar Restaurant in Arlington, VA! Rec.: 12/28/2023

Central Asia has never enjoyed so much international attention as it has since Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine. The search for new, non-Russian trade routes and energy resources to replace Russian oil and gas supplies is leading many countries to strengthen their ties with the Central Asian states. One sign of this is the world tour the Central Asian leaders (as members of the C5 group of states) have been on in 2023, traveling to meet with heads of state in China, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Germany, and other countries. This new popularity has changed the fortunes of the Central Asian countries, but also the manner in which the leaders govern their countries. Joining host Bruce Pannier to discuss all this are guests Catherine Putz, managing editor at The Diplomat magazine, Nargis Kassenova, senior fellow and director of the program on Central Asia at Harvard Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and Luca Anceschi, professor of Central Asian studies at Glasgow University.

INTRO: There are many scenarios of what a post-Putin Russia would look like, especially following a substantial defeat in Ukraine. The obvious one, is to assume that a humiliated Russia would blame the West for its defeat and seek revenge, forcing the collective West to rearm and prepare for the next act of aggression by the Russian imperium. But reality has a way of throwing surprises, and we can't discount the scenario of a weak and fragmented Russia actually embarking on reforms and changes that begin the process of democratic transition and reconciliation. While seemingly unlikely, should we nonetheless be preparing to engage if Russia takes this course, and is there anything we can do to promote an outcome that will be far more beneficial for us, and potentially for Russians themselves? ---------- ABOUT: Dr Stephen Hall is an Associate Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society. Dr Stephen Hall is a Lecturer (and Assistant Professor) in Russian and Post-Soviet Politics, at the Department of Politics, Languages, and International Studies at the University of Bath. He is a specialist on Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Central Asia, and the South Caucasus and on authoritarian regions. He received his PhD from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, UCL and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Cambridge. He has published extensively in Europe-Asia Studies, Problems of Post-Communism, East European Politics, Post-Communist Economies, Russian Politics, and the Journal of Eurasian Studies. His book entitled The Authoritarian International: Tracing how Authoritarian Regimes Learn in the Post-Soviet Space came out in 2023 with Cambridge University Press. ---------- SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtain https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- ARTICLES: https://henryjacksonsociety.org/publications/getting-a-foot-in-the-door-creating-a-future-russia-now/ ---------- LINKS: https://henryjacksonsociety.org/staff/dr-stephen-g-f-hall/ https://twitter.com/stephengfhall https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-g-f-hall-7313b942/ ---------- BOOKS: Authoritarian International https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/authoritarian-international/4B49766C0CC9ACE7F2522ECB5AB804B8#fndtn-metrics ---------- WATCH NEXT: Sir Richard Shirreff https://youtu.be/UMi1Y3iF710 Operator Starsky https://youtu.be/ABIIyNa1AOk Anders Puck Nielsen https://youtu.be/2TJTUuu_cM0 Ben Hodges https://youtu.be/gpzfEVhdNp0 John Spencer https://youtu.be/2lmAOWfQvdE ---------- PLATFORMS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSilicon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconcurtain/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/ ----------

On this episode, Misha talks with Ruslan Pukhov, a Russian defense analyst and the director of the Moscow-based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST). Mr. Pukhov shares about the origins of CAST during the late 90s, the state of Russia's defense economy, and his views on the current war in Ukraine. He states that neither the Ukrainian public nor Ukrainian leadership and elites understand what "victory" means in terms of a realistic approach and that continued American support, strongly dependent upon the upcoming US presidential elections in his view, is critical to Ukraine's prospects in this war. EPISODE NOTES: 1. The journalist Mr. Pukhov mentions is Yuri Lyamin. The link to his blog the Imperial Navigator, where his latest pieces analyze Hamas propaganda following the recent eruption of hostilities between Iran-backed Hamas and Israel: https://imp-navigator.livejournal.com/. 2. Select articles from a variety of sources that include commentary from the demographer Alexey Raksha: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-20/rogue-demographer-says-russia-covid-deaths-may-be-europe-s-worst https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-18/putin-s-war-escalation-is-hastening-demographic-crash-for-russia https://fortune.com/2022/10/18/russia-population-historic-decline-emigration-war-plunging-birth-rate-form-perfect-storm/ https://www.economist.com/europe/2023/03/04/russias-population-nightmare-is-going-to-get-even-worse https://theweek.com/russia/1017914/russias-catastrophic-missing-men-problem https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/conflict-deepens-russias-demographic-crisis 3. For a list of pieces by Mr. Pukhov as written for The Moscow Times visit https://www.themoscowtimes.com/author/ruslan-pukhov PRODUCER'S NOTE: This episode was recorded on October 1, 2023 via Zoom. The views expressed in this episode belong to the speakers and do not reflect those of either the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies or the William P. Clements, Jr. Center for National Security at The University of Texas at Austin. If you have questions, comments, or would like to be a guest on the show, please email slavxradio@utexas.edu and we will be in touch! CREDITS Associate Producer: Misha Simanovskyy (@MSimanovskyy) Associate Producer: Cullan Bendig (@cullanwithana) Associate Producer: Sergio Glajar Production Assistant: Faith VanVleet Production Assistant: Eliza Fisher Supervising Producer: Nicholas Pierce SlavX Editorial Director: Sam Parrish Recording, Editing, and Sound Design: Michelle Daniel Music Producer: Charlie Harper (@charlieharpermusic) www.charlieharpermusic.com (Main Theme by Charlie Harper and additional background music by Beat Mekanik, Broke For Free, KAZKA) Executive Producer & Creator: Michelle Daniel (@MSDaniel) www.msdaniel.com DISCLAIMER: Texas Podcast Network is brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. Podcasts are produced by faculty members and staffers at UT Austin who work with University Communications to craft content that adheres to journalistic best practices. The University of Texas at Austin offers these podcasts at no charge. Podcasts appearing on the network and this webpage represent the views of the hosts, not of The University of Texas at Austin. https://files.fireside.fm/file/fireside-uploads/images/9/9a59b135-7876-4254-b600-3839b3aa3ab1/P1EKcswq.png Special Guest: Ruslan Pukhov.

Ukrainian-Canadian political scientist Ivan Katchanovski talks about exposing Yaroslav Hunka for being in a Nazi unit, the Ukraine War, the Maidan massacre and more. Then Peoples Dispatch's Zoe Alexandra The New York Times' connection to press crackdowns in India. Ivan Katchanovski teaches at the School of Political Studies & Conflict Studies and Human Rights Program at the University of Ottawa. He was Visiting Scholar at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian at Harvard University. He is the author of "Cleft Countries: Regional Political Divisions and Cultures in Post-Soviet Ukraine and Moldova," and the co-author of "Historical Dictionary of Ukraine." He has written for and/ or appeared on The BBC, CBC, Washington Post, The Guardian and more. He specializes primarily in politics, conflicts, political violence, and the far right in Ukraine. He teaches at the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. Katchanovski was Visiting Scholar at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Politics at the State University of New York at Potsdam, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, and Kluge Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. His academic publications include 4 books, 19 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and 12 chapters. His three books on the Russia-Ukraine war and its origins, the Maidan massacre in Ukraine, and modern Ukraine will be published by major Western academic presses. ***Please support The Katie Halper Show *** For bonus content, exclusive interviews, to support independent media & to help make this program possible, please join us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/thekatiehalpershow Get your Katie Halper Show Merch here! https://katiehalper.myspreadshop.com/all Follow Katie on Twitter: @kthalps

Creating the Post-Soviet Russian Market Economy: Through American Eyes (Routledge, 2023) captures the essence of the period when Russians and Americans collaborated in creating new structures of government and new businesses in completely uncharted conditions. It presents the experiences of key American participants in late Soviet and post-Soviet Russia during a time when Americans thought anything was possible in Russia. Using an analytic framework of foreground ideas (Western, liberal & neo-liberal) and background forces (Russian cultural influences, nationalism, and lingering Soviet ideology), it examines the ideas and intentions of the people involved. First-person interviews with consultants, businesspeople, and citizen diplomats help capture the essence of this turbulent reform period through the eyes of those who experienced it and presents the importance of this experience as a piece of the puzzle in understanding contemporary Russia. It will be an invaluable resource for students of international relations, Russian studies majors, researchers, and members of the general public who are trying to understand the evolution of the current antagonism between the US and Russia. Daniel Satinsky, J.D., M.A.L.D., Consultant, Author, and Associate of Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Creating the Post-Soviet Russian Market Economy: Through American Eyes (Routledge, 2023) captures the essence of the period when Russians and Americans collaborated in creating new structures of government and new businesses in completely uncharted conditions. It presents the experiences of key American participants in late Soviet and post-Soviet Russia during a time when Americans thought anything was possible in Russia. Using an analytic framework of foreground ideas (Western, liberal & neo-liberal) and background forces (Russian cultural influences, nationalism, and lingering Soviet ideology), it examines the ideas and intentions of the people involved. First-person interviews with consultants, businesspeople, and citizen diplomats help capture the essence of this turbulent reform period through the eyes of those who experienced it and presents the importance of this experience as a piece of the puzzle in understanding contemporary Russia. It will be an invaluable resource for students of international relations, Russian studies majors, researchers, and members of the general public who are trying to understand the evolution of the current antagonism between the US and Russia. Daniel Satinsky, J.D., M.A.L.D., Consultant, Author, and Associate of Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Creating the Post-Soviet Russian Market Economy: Through American Eyes (Routledge, 2023) captures the essence of the period when Russians and Americans collaborated in creating new structures of government and new businesses in completely uncharted conditions. It presents the experiences of key American participants in late Soviet and post-Soviet Russia during a time when Americans thought anything was possible in Russia. Using an analytic framework of foreground ideas (Western, liberal & neo-liberal) and background forces (Russian cultural influences, nationalism, and lingering Soviet ideology), it examines the ideas and intentions of the people involved. First-person interviews with consultants, businesspeople, and citizen diplomats help capture the essence of this turbulent reform period through the eyes of those who experienced it and presents the importance of this experience as a piece of the puzzle in understanding contemporary Russia. It will be an invaluable resource for students of international relations, Russian studies majors, researchers, and members of the general public who are trying to understand the evolution of the current antagonism between the US and Russia. Daniel Satinsky, J.D., M.A.L.D., Consultant, Author, and Associate of Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/russian-studies

Creating the Post-Soviet Russian Market Economy: Through American Eyes (Routledge, 2023) captures the essence of the period when Russians and Americans collaborated in creating new structures of government and new businesses in completely uncharted conditions. It presents the experiences of key American participants in late Soviet and post-Soviet Russia during a time when Americans thought anything was possible in Russia. Using an analytic framework of foreground ideas (Western, liberal & neo-liberal) and background forces (Russian cultural influences, nationalism, and lingering Soviet ideology), it examines the ideas and intentions of the people involved. First-person interviews with consultants, businesspeople, and citizen diplomats help capture the essence of this turbulent reform period through the eyes of those who experienced it and presents the importance of this experience as a piece of the puzzle in understanding contemporary Russia. It will be an invaluable resource for students of international relations, Russian studies majors, researchers, and members of the general public who are trying to understand the evolution of the current antagonism between the US and Russia. Daniel Satinsky, J.D., M.A.L.D., Consultant, Author, and Associate of Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/eastern-european-studies

The Russia-Ukraine War Report provides comprehensive, fact-based news coverage about the war in Ukraine. Our team of journalists, researchers, and analysts are from Georgia, Israel, Finland, Poland, Ukraine, the U.S., and the U.K. We go beyond content aggregation and provide analysis and assessments on how today's stories shape the war's future. Today's Podcast Zarina Zabrisky continues her coverage from Kherson, a city being systematically destroyed by the Russian the Russian army and aerospace forces (VKS). Steven Seegel, Professor of Slavic and Eurasian Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, is the founder and daily operator of The February 24th Archive, a civic project covering Russia's escalated war against Ukraine. Professor Seegel discusses how historical maps, and their preservation, are a critical tool for Ukraine's fight against Russia's war of aggression and how maps can be used as a tool to fuel disinformation. In the September 22, 2023 Situation Report, we outlined how Ukraine achieved a strategic victory in the Black Sea as part of its ongoing offensive. On September 28, we shared intelligence that the Russian Black Sea Fleet was being relocated from Sevastopol to Feodosia in occupied Crimea and Novorossiysk, Russia. Zarina Zabriksy interviews Ukrainian Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk, who explains that the first steps to achieving victory in the Black Sea started on April 14, 2022. Is it OK to celebrate Vladimir Putin's birthday in Ukraine? If the event is VPDFO 2023! Vladimir Putin: Do F.... - John Sweeny talks about floundering Western aid to Ukraine, how the war is slipping from the public consciousness, and how continued support is critical not just for Ukraine but global security. Zabrisky and Sweeny also discuss parties and celebrations in times of war. Resources and Links The Russian-Ukraine War Map is a great resource to use while listening to the podcast to see the geography covered in today's podcast. For more information on VPDFO 2023, you can click here. Support Independent Journalism As independent journalists, most of our costs are covered by subscribers. Not one? For $5 a month, you can support Malcontent News and get access to our Daily Situation Reports and Flash Reports, which provide updates during the day. The Situation Report includes information not included in the podcast, including weather forecasts, soil moisture and tractability, and an analysis of Russian and Ukrainian heavy equipment losses using information from the Oryx Database. Become a Patreon today, and we now offer a seven-day free trial subscription at the Bronze support level. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Defectors fleeing the Soviet Union seized the world's attention during the Cold War. Their stories were told in sensational news coverage and dramatized in spy novels and films. In contrast to other refugees, they were pursued by the states they left even as they were sought by the United States and other Western governments eager to claim them. Taking part in a risky game that played out across the globe, defectors sought to transcend the limitations of the Cold War world.  Defectors: How the Illicit Flight of Soviet Citizens Built the Borders of the Cold War World (Oxford University Press, 2023) follows their treacherous journeys and looks at how their unauthorized flight gave shape to a globalized world. It charts a global struggle over defectors that unfolded in a crowded courtroom in Paris, among rival intelligence agencies operating in the shadows of an occupied Europe, in the forbidden border zones of the USSR, in the disputed straits of the South China Sea, on a hijacked plane 10,000 feet in the air, and around the walls of Soviet embassies. In doing so, the book reveals a Cold War world whose borders were far less stable than the notion of an "Iron Curtain" suggests. Surprisingly, the competition for defectors paved the way for collusion between the superpowers, who found common interest in regulating the unruly spaces through which defectors moved. Disputes over defectors mapped out the contours of modern state sovereignty in previously contested places, and defection's ideological framework hardened borders by reinforcing the view that asylum should only be granted to migrants with clear political claims. Although defection all but disappeared after the Cold War, it helped forge an international refugee system whose legacy and limitations remain with us to this day Erik R. Scott is Associate Professor of History and director of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Kansas. Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Defectors fleeing the Soviet Union seized the world's attention during the Cold War. Their stories were told in sensational news coverage and dramatized in spy novels and films. In contrast to other refugees, they were pursued by the states they left even as they were sought by the United States and other Western governments eager to claim them. Taking part in a risky game that played out across the globe, defectors sought to transcend the limitations of the Cold War world.  Defectors: How the Illicit Flight of Soviet Citizens Built the Borders of the Cold War World (Oxford University Press, 2023) follows their treacherous journeys and looks at how their unauthorized flight gave shape to a globalized world. It charts a global struggle over defectors that unfolded in a crowded courtroom in Paris, among rival intelligence agencies operating in the shadows of an occupied Europe, in the forbidden border zones of the USSR, in the disputed straits of the South China Sea, on a hijacked plane 10,000 feet in the air, and around the walls of Soviet embassies. In doing so, the book reveals a Cold War world whose borders were far less stable than the notion of an "Iron Curtain" suggests. Surprisingly, the competition for defectors paved the way for collusion between the superpowers, who found common interest in regulating the unruly spaces through which defectors moved. Disputes over defectors mapped out the contours of modern state sovereignty in previously contested places, and defection's ideological framework hardened borders by reinforcing the view that asylum should only be granted to migrants with clear political claims. Although defection all but disappeared after the Cold War, it helped forge an international refugee system whose legacy and limitations remain with us to this day Erik R. Scott is Associate Professor of History and director of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Kansas. Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Defectors fleeing the Soviet Union seized the world's attention during the Cold War. Their stories were told in sensational news coverage and dramatized in spy novels and films. In contrast to other refugees, they were pursued by the states they left even as they were sought by the United States and other Western governments eager to claim them. Taking part in a risky game that played out across the globe, defectors sought to transcend the limitations of the Cold War world.  Defectors: How the Illicit Flight of Soviet Citizens Built the Borders of the Cold War World (Oxford University Press, 2023) follows their treacherous journeys and looks at how their unauthorized flight gave shape to a globalized world. It charts a global struggle over defectors that unfolded in a crowded courtroom in Paris, among rival intelligence agencies operating in the shadows of an occupied Europe, in the forbidden border zones of the USSR, in the disputed straits of the South China Sea, on a hijacked plane 10,000 feet in the air, and around the walls of Soviet embassies. In doing so, the book reveals a Cold War world whose borders were far less stable than the notion of an "Iron Curtain" suggests. Surprisingly, the competition for defectors paved the way for collusion between the superpowers, who found common interest in regulating the unruly spaces through which defectors moved. Disputes over defectors mapped out the contours of modern state sovereignty in previously contested places, and defection's ideological framework hardened borders by reinforcing the view that asylum should only be granted to migrants with clear political claims. Although defection all but disappeared after the Cold War, it helped forge an international refugee system whose legacy and limitations remain with us to this day Erik R. Scott is Associate Professor of History and director of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Kansas. Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/world-affairs

Defectors fleeing the Soviet Union seized the world's attention during the Cold War. Their stories were told in sensational news coverage and dramatized in spy novels and films. In contrast to other refugees, they were pursued by the states they left even as they were sought by the United States and other Western governments eager to claim them. Taking part in a risky game that played out across the globe, defectors sought to transcend the limitations of the Cold War world.  Defectors: How the Illicit Flight of Soviet Citizens Built the Borders of the Cold War World (Oxford University Press, 2023) follows their treacherous journeys and looks at how their unauthorized flight gave shape to a globalized world. It charts a global struggle over defectors that unfolded in a crowded courtroom in Paris, among rival intelligence agencies operating in the shadows of an occupied Europe, in the forbidden border zones of the USSR, in the disputed straits of the South China Sea, on a hijacked plane 10,000 feet in the air, and around the walls of Soviet embassies. In doing so, the book reveals a Cold War world whose borders were far less stable than the notion of an "Iron Curtain" suggests. Surprisingly, the competition for defectors paved the way for collusion between the superpowers, who found common interest in regulating the unruly spaces through which defectors moved. Disputes over defectors mapped out the contours of modern state sovereignty in previously contested places, and defection's ideological framework hardened borders by reinforcing the view that asylum should only be granted to migrants with clear political claims. Although defection all but disappeared after the Cold War, it helped forge an international refugee system whose legacy and limitations remain with us to this day Erik R. Scott is Associate Professor of History and director of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Kansas. Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/russian-studies

Defectors fleeing the Soviet Union seized the world's attention during the Cold War. Their stories were told in sensational news coverage and dramatized in spy novels and films. In contrast to other refugees, they were pursued by the states they left even as they were sought by the United States and other Western governments eager to claim them. Taking part in a risky game that played out across the globe, defectors sought to transcend the limitations of the Cold War world.  Defectors: How the Illicit Flight of Soviet Citizens Built the Borders of the Cold War World (Oxford University Press, 2023) follows their treacherous journeys and looks at how their unauthorized flight gave shape to a globalized world. It charts a global struggle over defectors that unfolded in a crowded courtroom in Paris, among rival intelligence agencies operating in the shadows of an occupied Europe, in the forbidden border zones of the USSR, in the disputed straits of the South China Sea, on a hijacked plane 10,000 feet in the air, and around the walls of Soviet embassies. In doing so, the book reveals a Cold War world whose borders were far less stable than the notion of an "Iron Curtain" suggests. Surprisingly, the competition for defectors paved the way for collusion between the superpowers, who found common interest in regulating the unruly spaces through which defectors moved. Disputes over defectors mapped out the contours of modern state sovereignty in previously contested places, and defection's ideological framework hardened borders by reinforcing the view that asylum should only be granted to migrants with clear political claims. Although defection all but disappeared after the Cold War, it helped forge an international refugee system whose legacy and limitations remain with us to this day Erik R. Scott is Associate Professor of History and director of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Kansas. Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/national-security

In great power strategic competition, states deploy wedge strategies to divide, weaken, and prevent opposing alliances. In part two of a two-part series on the topic, host David Wallsh moderates a discussion on Russia's wedge strategies in the Global South and how the United States can address this challenge. Dmitry Gorenburg is a Senior Research Scientist with CNA's Russia Studies program. He is an expert on security issues in the former Soviet Union, the Russian military, Russian foreign policy, and ethnic politics and identity. He is also an associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. Angela Stent is Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies and Professor of Government and Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She is also a Senior Fellow (non-resident) at the Brookings Institution and co-chairs its Hewett Forum on Post-Soviet Affairs. Further Reading CNA Report: Countering Chinese and Russian Alliance Wedge Strategies  

Professor John O' Brennan, Director of the Maynooth Centre for European and Eurasian Studies, discusses the impact of President Higgin's apology on the upcoming Consultative Forum on International Security Policy.

Can democracies preserve their norms and values from increasing attacks by understanding how authoritarian regimes learn? This is the question posed by Dr Stephen G. F. Hall in his forthcoming book. Looking at two established authoritarian regimes, Belarus, and Russia, he identifies clear signs of collaboration between authoritarian-minded elites, in developing survival best practices and learning from previous regimes in their own countries. For authoritarian-minded elites the main imperative is survival, and after that propagation of their values to like-minded regimes. Dr Stephen Hall is a Lecturer (and Assistant Professor) in Russian and Post-Soviet Politics, at the Department of Politics, Languages, and International Studies at the University of Bath. His specialist field is Russian & Post-Soviet Politics, and his research focuses on the authoritarian regimes in the post-Soviet space, especially Belarus, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine. He completed his PhD in 2020 at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London and he has been published in various journals including East European Politics, Journal of Eurasian Studies, Russian Politics, Problems of Post-Communism, Post-Communist Economies, and Europe-Asia Studies. Books: Authoritarian International (2023 - available for pre-order) https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/authoritarian-international/4B49766C0CC9ACE7F2522ECB5AB804B8#fndtn-metrics