Russia Rising Curiouscast

In this special episode, Niki Reitmayer, host of "This Is Why", and producer of "When Life Gives You Parkinson's" speaks with Jeff Semple about the making of Russia Rising, and gets a few updates on the stories covered this season. 

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“Crime Beat” is a new investigative podcast series hosted by Crime Reporter Nancy Hixt. She's been covering cases for over the past 20 years and knows her hometown by the crime scenes she's been to. Journey deep inside some of Canada’s most high-profile criminal cases. Each bi-weekly episode will take you inside the story to give you details you didn't hear on the news.  

Here’s a sneak peek from episode 2 of the series…. and while you’re listening, search and subscribe to “Crime Beat” for free at Curiouscast.ca or wherever you’re enjoying this podcast

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An estimated 28 million Russian young people who were born after Putin first rose to power two decades ago. Russia’s 66-year-old strongman was first sworn-in back on May 7, 2000, and he has remained in the Kremlin’s seat of power, either as President or Prime Minister, ever since. This week we talk to those young people to find out what the future holds for Russia.

Contact:

Twitter: @JeffSempleGN

Email: RussiaRising@Curiouscast.ca

Guests:

Anton Fedyashin - Associate Professor and Director, Carmel Institute, Department of History https://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/fedyashi.cfm

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On the sixth episode of Russia Rising, we’ll boldly go where no podcast has gone before.

The International Space Station has long been heralded as a beacon of geopolitical cooperation, where representatives from 18 countries have lived and worked together, trusting each other with their lives. And all of them, including Canada and the United States, rely on Russia to hitch a ride to the stars.

But that close, interconnected relationship is now being tested, as space becomes increasingly militarized and privatized.

But should we believe the hype? Are we really on the cusp on a new space race? To find out what the future of space travel really looks like, we’ll ask the spacemen and spacewomen who’ve been there and back. David Saint-Jacques, Anne McClain and their Russian commander, Oleg Kononenko, and Chris Hadfield, who has flown two space shuttle missions and served as the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station.

Contact:

Twitter: @JeffSempleGN

Email: RussiaRising@Curiouscast.ca

Guests:

David Saint-Jacques - Canadian astronaut
@Astro_DavidS

Doug Wheelock - NASA astronaut
@Astro_Wheels

Chris Hadfield — Former Canadian astronaut
@Cmdr_Hadfield

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On the fifth episode of Russia Rising, we’ll explore the growing information war between Russia and the West. Whether it's a chemical weapons attack in Syria, the poisoning of a former Russian spy in England or the war in eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin often promotes a much different version of events from the one being presented by Western governments. And in an age of fake news, social media and countless alternative online news sources, it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction and know whom to trust.    In this context, we’ll speak with Russian analyst Julian Lindley-French, who warns the Kremlin has deployed an effective propaganda strategy known as ‘Maskirovka.’ It began as a Russian military doctrine 600 years ago, but has recently evolved into a political weapon.

We’ll explore a number of recent examples of ‘Maskirovka’ by speaking with Rasmus Nilsson, an expert in Russian Politics and Foreign Policy at University College London.    Edward Lucas, a Russia expert at the Center for European Policy Analysis, explains how each time the West accuses of Moscow of behaving badly, the Kremlin responds — not only with denials — but also by promoting numerous different theories and possible explanations. “The main thing is to distract,” he says. “Spread as many different conspiracy theories and alternative explanations as possible, so people think: we don’t really know what’s going on and who’s to know what the facts are.”   And spreading those alternative theories has never been easier, thanks to the internet and social media. We’ll speak via Skype with Lukas Andriukaitis, an analyst with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, which tracks fake news online.

And we’ll also take a tour behind the scenes of one of the world’s most controversial TV news networks: RT, formerly known as Russia Today, is a Kremlin-funded TV channel that’s broadcast outside of Russia to more than 100 countries, including Canada. The United States has accused RT of being a propaganda weapon for the Kremlin and its American subsidiary was forced to register as a “foreign agent.” We’ll put those allegations to the network’s deputy editor in Moscow, Anna Belkina. 

Contact:

Twitter: @JeffSempleGN

E-mail: RussiaRising@curiouscast.ca

Guests:

Julian Lindley-French, Canadian Global Affairs Institute
@FrencLindley

Rasmus Nilsson, University College London
@RNilsson79

Edward Lucas, Center for European Policy Analysis
@EdwardLucas

Lukas Andriukaitis, Digital Forensic Research Lab
@LAndriukaitis

Anna Belkina, Deputy Editor of RT
@Anabelle10021

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On this episode of Russia Rising, we’ll visit Salisbury, England — the historic cathedral city that became the site of the first chemical nerve agent attack on European soil since the Second World War.

The poisoning of former Russian double-agent Sergey Skripal in March 2018 prompted one of the most explosive and controversial allegations facing the Kremlin today: Were Russian secret intelligence agents responsible for the botched assassination? And if so, how could trained Russian spies have been so careless by leaving a trail of evidence for British investigators to follow?

In the search for answers, we’ll return to the scene of the crime and speak with former KGB agent Alexander Vassiliev. Then we talk to Charles Shoebridge, a former British counter-intelligence officer and then we talk to Russian journalist Roman Dobrokhotov, who has spent the past few years investigating Russian GRU activities.

We’ll speak with Dobrokhotov and his counterparts at Bellingcat, a British-based investigative news website, about how they uncovered the true identities of the alleged assassins in Salisbury, one of whom apparently used his real first name and birth date on his fake ID documents and had a vehicle registered to GRU headquarters in Moscow.

The Kremlin denies any involvement in the Skripal poisoning and President Putin has said that the two Russian suspects are innocent and ordinary civilians. We’ll cut through the contradicting claims and examine the evidence, including what it reveals about Russia’s intelligence operations.

Contact:

Twitter: @JeffSempleGN

E-mail: RussiaRising@Curiouscast.ca

Guests:

Alexander Vassiliev, former KGB Agent

Charles Shoebridge, former British counter-intelligence officer
@ShoebridgeC

Roman Dobrokhotov, Editor in Chief of ‘The Insider’
@Dobrokhotov

Eliot Higgins / Founder of Bellingcat
@EliotHiggins

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