In Moscow's Shadows

His books are great too.

Brilliant commentary from a very knowledgeable person who knows Russia extremely well. Mark is the best voice I have heard on Russian actions.

I enjoy listening to this while working, aside from the repetitive tropes and hilariously wrong pre-invasion “insights”, though he seems much less Comrade Pinko after the invasion. Worth listening to for an educated outsider’s insight on the monsters behind the rusty, blood soaked Iron Curtain. (Apologies for the Russophobia, my father was stationed in Berlin when The Wall fell and those visits to East Berlin made a very profound mark. I don’t hate the average Russian, only their masters.)

Since I’ve been consuming Mark’s commentary (10ish years) there is one constant refrain: everyone else is wrong, Russia is hardly as bad as everyone claims it is, it’s actually pretty swell in many ways when you really think of it. Gosh, they have trains that run on time. Mark, please stop at some point and analyze your own deeply held precious beliefs. If Russians are wrong about their country, heaven knows ex Soviet block countries are very wrong about Russia, and you alone have this remarkable insight into a country that has descended into fascism and dictatorship while you proclaim the whole time that things are really not so bad, maybe you are in fact the one who is mistaken. This podcast would be much more interesting if you would bring on guests to actually offer other points of views other than your sermons.