Russia has had a strong military presence in Syria ever since 2015, bolstering the regime of Bashar al-Assad and pushing back the rebels. But in the space of a few days this month, the rebels were able to take major cities including Damascus and overthrow the government. Assad was forced to flee the country and seek refuge in Moscow. What does this mean for Russia, which had invested a lot of resources in Syria and used it as a bargaining chip in the power play in the Middle East? What will the fallout be from this sudden change of political climate?
Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by James Acton, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, to discuss Russia’s updated nuclear doctrine, the strike on Dnipro using the experimental Oreshnik missile, and the possibility of new strategic arms agreements between Russia and the US.
Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by Alexander Baunov, editor-in-chief of Carnegie Politika and a senior fellow at Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, to discuss the upcoming Trump presidency and what effect it may have on Russian foreign policy and the war in Ukraine.
Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by Maksim Samorukov, a fellow at Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, and by Paula Erizanu, a prominent writer and journalist from Chisinau who writes for Financial Times, The Guardian and The New York Times, to discuss the upcoming presidential election in Moldova and what leverage Moscow still has to interfere in Moldova’s path toward the EU.
Podcast host Alex Gabuev is joined by Alexandra Prokopenko, a fellow at Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, and by Alexander Kolyandr, a financial analyst and non-resident senior scholar at the Center for European Policy Analysis, to discuss the state budget for 2025/26 and the prospects of the Russian economy in coming years.
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.