Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by Dara Massicot, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment, and independent researcher Alexey Gusev to discuss the unprecedented turn of events at the frontline following Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region.

As Russia’s border regions come under attack from Ukraine, the dissonance between the illusion of peaceful life and the wartime reality for residents evacuated away from shelling is too stark to be hushed up.

The unexplained death in prison of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is a symbol of global attempts to shift the balance of power toward authoritarian elites everywhere.

More and more people are demanding explanations from local officials. And they’re not satisfied with answers that claim all decisions are taken in Moscow.

Belgorod, Bryansk, and Kursk—known in the 1990s as the communist “red belt”—are now a support belt for Putin’s “special operation.”

Despite growing talk abroad of Russia’s coming decolonization and the potential role of the war in Ukraine in bringing it about, several factors preclude the country’s disintegration along its regional borders.