Winter is Here Renew Democracy Initiative

This morning, in a move that resulted from Russia’s failures in Ukraine, Wagner forces under mercenary leader Yevgeny V. Prigozhin seized the city of Rostov-on-Don without firing a shot and began advancing towards Moscow.
This represents a serious escalation of the long-simmering tensions between the Russian mercenary group and the official military authorities, but more importantly it finally puts to bed the lie that Putin is some kind of strategic mastermind. Prigozhin, with a few thousand men, was essentially able to defy the entire Russian government and move forward almost unopposed. 
A few hours later, it appears that Act I of this drama concluded with Prigozhin announcing that his forces were “turning around our columns and returning to field camps according to plan.” This isn’t the end of this intra-Russian conflict, but merely an intermission. Reverberations from Prigozhin’s rebellion will continue to be felt for weeks in both Russia and on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Ultimately, the single greatest impact of this surprise turn of events is demonstrating to both Russian citizens and the world at large that the Emperor has no clothes. For all of Putin’s posturing, he presides over a Potemkin village whose power—both military and otherwise—has clearly been overstated.
Join RDI Chairman Garry Kasparov and RDI Executive Director Uriel Epshtein for a special episode to analyze what’s been going on and stay tuned as events continue to unfold.


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In our final podcast of 2022, we’re going to take a bit of a different look at the global fight between tyranny and democracy by focusing on our internal struggle. The health of American democracy is critical to the global fight for freedom. As America, so the world. With this in mind, I wanted to dive into the conversation around the January 6th report and get a sense of how we got here and the impact the committee will have as Republicans get ready to take the House. Former Senator Heidi Heitkamp and former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara join me for this special episode of Winter is Here. We discuss the findings of the committee's final report, the distinctions between free speech, political speech, and criminal culpability, Trump's path to an indictment, and what it all means for the future of American democracy.
Heitkamp served as North Dakota's Attorney General from 1992 to 2000, and as a US Senator from 2013 to 2019. She currently serves on the boards of the McCain Institute, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and the German Marshall Fund. Recently, Heitkamp was named director of the University of Chicago's Institute of World Politics. She is also a frequent contributor to politics and public affairs for ABC News and CNBC.  
Preet was the former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. As US Attorney, he oversaw the investigation and litigation of all criminal and civil cases brought on behalf of the United States in the Southern District of New York. Currently, he is a partner at the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.


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Today’s episode is one that I was very excited about, but before I get into it, I want to offer a quick update on my recent trip to Berlin. Jeff Gedmin and I were joined by a few journalists as well as a number of Ukrainian, German, and Polish thought leaders to see how the West could come together to join forces in support of Ukraine. This is just the beginning of a series of dialogues RDI will host in coordination with American Purpose. We’ll keep you apprised of how these conversations go and what they will produce. And now, onto the episode! 
I’m joined by Fiona Hill for a conversation on how Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s psychology informs his decision making in the war in Ukraine, and how it may inform the decision making of dictators everywhere. We discuss Putin’s calculated choice to escalate the war in Ukraine, the many ways Putin could lose control over Russia, Putin’s connection to Zelensky and Trump, the possibility of nuclear war, and the necessity of maintaining a united front against Russian aggression.
Fiona was the deputy assistant to the president and senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council from 2017 to 2019. She served as a national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council from 2006 to 2009. Prior to that, she held numerous positions at the Eurasia Foundation in Washington, D.C. and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Fiona is currently a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center on the United States and Europe and has written extensively on Russian history, Vladimir Putin, and geopolitics.



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I’m joined by Larry Diamond for a conversation on how our social media ecosystem amplifies extremist movements and empowers authoritarian regimes such as China, Iran and Russia. We discuss how our democracy at home relates to the fight for freedom abroad, the perverse incentives of today's social media ecosystem, Twitter’s fate, and how Russia’s war against Ukraine relates to Taiwan.
Larry Diamond is one of the foremost experts on the study of democracy. He is a Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Larry is also a Senior Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, where he leads its programs on China's Global Sharp Power and on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region. He is the co-founding editor of the Journal on Democracy and the author of numerous books, the most recent being "China's Influence and American Interests: Promoting Constructive Vigilance."


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As Iran enters its fourth week of protests, Roya Hakakian joins Uriel Epshtein for a conversation on Iran and its place in the global battle between tyranny and freedom. They discuss the murder of Mahsa Amini, the irrationality of Iran's morality police, and how the situations in Ukraine and Iran are connected. 
Roya Hakakian is a writer, journalist, poet, and political activist. She was a founding member of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center and is a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Roya has served on the board of Refugees International, a non-profit dedicated to human rights and the relocation of refugees, and as a fellow at the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University. Her writing appears in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and NPR's All Things Considered.
The Winter is Here podcast and the newsletter The Democracy Brief will be running on alternating Thursdays.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit renewdemocracy.substack.com

Jeffrey Gedmin joins Uriel Epshtein for a special conversation from Berlin, Germany. They have spent the week meeting with German lawmakers to make the case that Germany could be doing more to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom. In this conversation, they discuss whether German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s commitment to fight authoritarianism will be backed up with concrete policy or if Germany’s backlash to the Russian invasion of Ukraine is just talk.
Jeffrey Gedmin is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the magazine American Purpose. He is the former CEO of Radio Free Europe and previously ran the Legatum Institute in London and the Aspen Institute in Berlin.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit renewdemocracy.substack.com