The Russia Fil‪e‬ Wilson Center

Most Russians have long stopped expecting that any real change may come from electoral politics. And yet, a slew of recent, successful popular movements from Moscow to Khabarovsk are proving that, even without real elections, Russians can stand up for their interests.
Maxim Trudolyubov discusses Russia's newfound social and political activism with Zhanna Nemtsova, co-founder of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom and daughter of the late Boris Nemtsov.

For years journalists Irina Borogan and Andrei Soldatov have reported on Russia’s security services. This time, they decided to look at the agencies’ history and wrote The Compatriots: The Brutal and Chaotic History of Russia's Exiles, Émigrés, and Agents Abroad. With the poisoning of the Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and its aftermath, the book is suddenly more topical than one is comfortable to admit. Borogan and Soldatov discuss the KGB of old and Russia’s existing security organizatio

Thirty years ago, a million Russian-speaking immigrants arrived in Israel. Overnight, they became one of the largest Russian-speaking communities in the world outside the former Soviet Union. Who are the Russian-speaking Israelis? What did their arrival signify for the country? We discuss these questions with Ksenia Svetlova, Matti Friedman, and Yossi Klein Halevi. Matti Friedman’s piece in Mosaic: https://bit.ly/3qBd40k Yossi Klein Halevi’s piece in Mosaic: https://bit.ly/3owVkkK

The media environments in Russia and the US are almost mirror opposites. In the US, mainstream media can cut away from the sitting president on live television or poke fun at him in their opinion pages. In Russia, independent media are happy just to stay alive. The internet and social media, often seen as sources of polarization in the US, are a lifeline for the embattled journalists in Russia as well as Belarus. Yet, we have a lot to learn from each other—and to disagree upon.

America’s universities and think tanks produce first-rate studies of Russia’s history, culture, and politics. And yet, the way Russia features on the U.S. political stage and in the American media is not particularly nuanced. Jill Dougherty, a long-time CNN journalist and an expert on Russia and Kevin Rothrock, Senior Editor at the English-language edition of Meduza, join Maxim Trudolyubov to discuss the state of Russia studies and Russia stereotypes in American political language.

Earlier this year, Vladimir Putin published an article in a Washington, DC think tank publication seeking to explain to American audiences the “real” lessons of World War II. Why is so much of Vladimir Putin’s attention devoted to WWII? In what ways does it serve his political interests at home and abroad? What messages was he trying to communicate, and to whom? Historians Ivan Kurilla and Dariusz Stola help Izabella Tabarovsky unpack these questions—and to fact-check the piece in the process.