Power Vertical Podcast Ep. 14

We’ve had a sustained and persistent wave of protests over plans to raise Russia’s retirement age. We’ve had an embarrassing election where the Kremlin has been unable to control the results — or the script. And we’ve had Vladimir Putin’s former bodyguard and current National Guard commander Viktor Zolotov challenging Russia’s main opposition leader Aleksei Navalny to a duel.

Just six months into Putin’s fourth term in the Kremlin, his regime appears on the defensive as Russia’s political reality changes before our eyes. But what exactly is it changing into? And what exactly does it mean?

On this week’s Power Vertical Podcast, Brian Whitmore discusses Russia’s autumn of discontent with former U.S. State Department official and CEPA Senior Fellow Donald N. Jensen and CEPA Adjunct Fellow Maria Snegovaya.

Correction: The murdered Russian Tsar in question was Paul I, not Alexander I.

Photo: Kremlin.ru

WP Post Author

Brian Whitmore

Brian Whitmore is Director of the Russia Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis. Before joining CEPA he was Senior Russia Analyst at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He also worked as a foreign correspondent for The Boston Globe in Moscow and Prague; as a graduate instructor in the Department of Government and International Studies at the University of South Carolina; and as a visiting lecturer in the History Faculty at Mechnikov National University in Odessa, Ukraine and the International Relations Faculty at St. Petersburg State University.

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October 1, 2018

The Power Vertical is a CEPA podcast covering the Kremlin for Kremlin watchers. All opinions are those of the guests and do not necessarily represent the position or views of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis.