Russia went from a tsarist empire and the totalitarian USSR to the freedom of the 1990s, complete with hopes of becoming a European democracy. Unfortunately, multiple missteps and reckless foreign policy endeavors have resulted in Russia becoming a security threat to Europe and its own neighbors. Two Chechen wars, the invasion of Georgia, and annexation of Crimea paved the way for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. How did it end up this way? Were there signs? What is the current state of Russian society?
Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by Elizaveta Fokht, a BBC Russian Service special correspondent, to discuss how Russia tried and failed to win over Trump.
Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by Edward Fishman, a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, to discuss the new U.S. sanctions targeting Russia’s two largest crude producers.
Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by Robert Zoellick, formerly a president of the World Bank, U.S. trade representative, and U.S. deputy secretary of state, to discuss initiatives to seize Russian assets and give them to Ukraine, along with the associated legal hurdles.
Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by Justyna Gotkowska, deputy director of the Center for Eastern Studies in Warsaw, to discuss the latest Russia-related incidents over Denmark, Estonia, Norway, and Poland, and what they mean for NATO.