KennanX Wilson Center Kennan Institute

“Is Putin insane?” Vladimir Putin's speeches can offer insight into the Kremlin’s political thought patterns and intentions, but they are often misunderstood. Jill Dougherty sits down with Ivan Grek, Director of the Russia Program at George Washington University’s Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, who created a linguistic profile of Vladimir Putin to better understand the Russian leader's approach to statecraft.

Russia is determined that its war in Ukraine will shape the outlines of the future world order, and it’s using influence operations to ensure the outcome will be in Russia’s favor. Washington Post international investigative reporter Catherine Belton joins Jill Dougherty to discuss the crucial role of influence operations in Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, common Russian disinformation talking points, and the ultimate goal of Russian strategic operations in the United States and around the world.

Jill Dougherty sits down with former US Ambassador to Russia and Bulgaria John R. Beyrle to discuss their shared foundational experiences in Soviet Russia, including as US exchange students in then-Leningrad and later as American National Exhibition guides, and how they still inform their work in journalism and diplomacy today.

Ukraine isn’t the only country that’s fighting Russian influence for its democratic future. Tinatin Khidasheli, Georgia’s first female minister of defense and current Chairperson at Civic IDEA (Initiative for Democratic and Euro-Atlantic Choice), an NGO in Georgia, joins Jill Dougherty to discuss tensions between Georgia’s government and its civil society over the direction of the country’s future, including this year’s mass protests against a proposed “foreign agents” law, and expectations for Georgia’s upcoming presidential election in 2024.
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A shocking number of Kremlin opponents have been left dead or permanently injured from poisonings. During a trip to Prague in May 2023, Free Russia Foundation President and Founder Natalia Arno became one of the latest individuals to develop poisoning symptoms after speaking out against political oppression in Russia. Arno shares her harrowing story with Jill Dougherty, and the two also discuss the work of Russia’s political activists in exile, the Kremlin’s history of transnational oppression of its political opponents, and the signs of hope she sees for Russia’s democratic future.

Jill Dougherty sits down with Zhanna Nemtsova to discuss her work with the Boris Nemtsov Foundation, which Zhanna founded in 2015 in Germany after her father’s assassination, and the generational gaps that have divided Russian civil society. Their conversation touched on the prevailing apathy of Russian society in the face of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, propaganda in higher education being used to advance Putin’s agenda, and why the key to Russia’s democratization lies in education reform. Show notes and episode transcript: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/audio/kennanx-episode-28-zhanna-nemtsova