Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in a Siberian prison colony for disparaging the invasion of Ukraine but was released as part of this summer’s historic prisoner swap that also freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. marine Paul Whelan.
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Anne Applebaum, staff writer at The Atlantic, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss dictators from Putin to Maduro, the networks they rely on, and why democracies around the world have been complicit in the rise of these despots.
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Wall Street Journal assistant editor Paul Beckett joins host Krys Boyd to discuss what is known about Gershkovich’s condition in prison, the efforts to free him, and what journalism looks like in Putin’s Russia now.
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Dara Massicot, senior policy researcher at the Rand Corporation, joins guest host John McCaa to discuss the errors Russia has made thus far, and how Ukraine has defied the odds with the help of its international allies.
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Professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat joins guest host John McCaa to discuss how world leaders from Benito Mussolini to Vladimir Putin have gained followers and manipulated the media.
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UCLA political scientist Daniel Treisman discusses Putin’s rise from spin doctor to tyrant – and about who makes up his inner circle now as the world watches for his next moves.
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Tom McTague argues that Russian aggression must be seen in a larger geopolitical light, with China and its threat to democracy closely linked.
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Laura Rosenberger, the director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, joins us to talk about foreign interference and the security of the 2020 presidential election.
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Yale University fellow David Shimer joins us to talk about the history of covert programs to influence voters.
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Joshua Yaffa, Moscow correspondent for The New Yorker, joins us to talk about the power players who’ve succeeded in Putin’s shadow – and others who weren’t able to carve out their places.
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We’ll talk this hour about the origins of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict with Serhii Plokhy, professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard.
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