Carnegie Politika Podcast

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The Carnegie Politika Podcast delivers world-class analysis on what’s happening in Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia. Every month, Russia expert Alexander Gabuev talks to Carnegie scholars and regional analysts on the ground to respond to emerging regional trends, the future of Russian geopolitics, and how the region is shaping the world.

6D AGO

What to Expect From the Russian Economy in 2026

The Russian economy has been under intense pressure from sanctions, the demands of war, and structural challenges. Still, it isn’t collapsing, despite predictions and wishful thinking on the part of the West. How healthy is the Russian economy, and how much strain can it handle in 2026?

27 min
JAN 29

Transatlantic Tensions, the Russia Threat, and Davos, With Gideon Rachman

This year’s World Economic Forum took place amid turbulent transatlantic relations. Donald Trump has renewed his plans for “getting” Greenland, threatening to annex part of a NATO ally. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine rages on, while the peace talks have stalled. What is the state of the European discussion on relations with the U.S.? Can Europe support Ukraine while managing its own domestic challenges and a volatile U.S. foreign policy? What are Western leaders thinking in terms of their Russia strategy?

34 min
JAN 8

Maduro’s Downfall, Global Oil Markets, and Russia, With Sergey Vakulenko

Under Putin, Russia has established a relationship with Venezuela, and was heavily involved in the country until recent years. The Chavez and then Maduro regimes bought Russian weapons with sizeable loans from the Kremlin, Moscow ordered its energy companies to invest in Venezuelan oil fields, and Russia boasted of having secured a foothold in the U.S.’s backyard. With Trump’s swift and successful operation to arrest Maduro, the situation has changed. What are the implications for Russia’s global posture? What can the Kremlin do, and will it do anything? Will deposing Maduro lead to a situation in which Venezuelan oil floods global markets with U.S. help?

39 min
12/11/2025

Navigating the U.S.-Russia Standoff: India’s Foreign Policy, With Pankaj Saran

India and Russia have a mutually beneficial relationship going back decades, and since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, India’s strategic importance for Russia has grown considerably. This hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Trump administration, which has slapped additional tariffs on India for buying Russian oil. To maintain its position as an emerging global powerhouse, India must navigate not only an unpredictable U.S. foreign policy, but also a more assertive China that is exploiting Russia’s asymmetrical dependence, and a Europe that is unhappy about New Delhi’s ties to Moscow.

28 min
11/27/2025

What Went Wrong in Russia? Russian Imperialism, With Ekaterina Schulmann and Alexander Graf Lambsdorff

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?

32 min
11/13/2025

How Russian Diplomacy Lost Trump, With Elizaveta Fokht

Russia has had a year to convince Trump to give up on Ukraine and force Zelensky to surrender, but at the end of 2025, we are yet to see any significant results from the Kremlin’s efforts. After a triumphant beginning that had Europe and Ukraine worried, and an unprecedented Anchorage summit between Putin and Trump, the situation no longer looks as favorable for Russia. The planned Budapest summit has been called off, Trump has introduced the first sanctions against Russian oil giants since returning to the White House, and the U.S. president never misses an opportunity to criticize Putin for being intransigent. What contributed to Russia’s diplomatic failure? When did Putin stop relying on his diplomats, and how did the Russian Foreign Office come to be nothing more than another source of the Kremlin’s delusion and another mouthpiece for Putin’s propaganda?

45 min
10/30/2025

The Collapse of the Oil Empire? New U.S. Sanctions Against Russia, With Edward Fishman

After recent failures to bring the Kremlin to the negotiating table to end the war in Ukraine, Trump has adopted a new approach to Putin, taking the significant step of sanctioning Russia’s two biggest oil producers, Rosneft and Lukoil, while also demanding that China and India stop buying Russian oil. Will this step finally persuade Putin to negotiate an end to his war? Why has it taken the United States so long to go after the two biggest cash cows in Putin’s war chest? Will these sanctions have any side effects for global markets?

36 min
10/16/2025

How to Handle Russia’s Frozen Assets in the EU, With Robert Zoellick

Russian assets abroad were frozen almost as soon as the country launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The idea of seizing those assets and transferring them to Ukraine has been discussed in Western capitals for more than three years, but no significant action has been taken because the assets are protected by sovereign immunity and the West is officially not at war with Russia. Now, with a new administration in the United States and the war of attrition in Ukraine dragging on, European leaders find themselves between a rock—the need to show unwavering support for Ukraine—and a hard place: growing public discontent at having to fund this war from European pockets, when there are billions of euros in Russian money sitting in Western bank accounts. What would the procedure be for embarking on such a complex legal matter? What would setting such a precedent mean for the EU, the euro, and the dollar, and for the countries looking to deposit their reserves in the EU? And does Europe have a plan B if internal divisions can’t be overcome?

31 min

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5

out of 5

4 Ratings

Top Notch

03/24/2023

RJG179

The podcast is great and the host is not only highly knowledgeable, but seems to be tailor-made for the times. An invaluable voice to add to your listening/reading list.

The Carnegie Politika Podcast delivers world-class analysis on what’s happening in Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia. Every month, Russia expert Alexander Gabuev talks to Carnegie scholars and regional analysts on the ground to respond to emerging regional trends, the future of Russian geopolitics, and how the region is shaping the world.