In Moscow's Shadows 118: Clueless in Gaza - Russia and the current Middle East crisis
A quick and early episode looking at what roles and goals - if any - Russia has in the current Hamas-Israel war. The bottom line is that Russia was not behind the terrorist invasion, doesn't really kn...
14 Okt 202342min
In Moscow's Shadows 117: Security Politics and the President Who Can't Change His Spots
The Russian police are increasingly under pressure. The National Guard is getting into the mercenary game. There is talk (probably empty) of Wagner being reconstituted under Evgeny Prigozhin's son Pav...
8 Okt 202346min
In Moscow's Shadows 116: Putin's "Forever War" (which isn't)
The easy cliche that the Ukraine conflict may become a 'forever war' is a convenient notion for Putin - it may help dismay his enemies, and provides an organising principle for 'late Putinism.' To par...
1 Okt 202351min
In Moscow's Shadows 115: Kadyrov and the Conflict Entrepreneurs
Is Kadyrov dying? If so, who might replace him - and what may this mean for Russia. If Chechnya again becomes unstable, will Putin be faced with a choice of losing in Ukraine or in Chechnya? In any c...
24 Sep 20231h 2min
In Moscow's Shadows 114: Six of the Best (?)
As a way of getting away from the perennial talk of Wagner and the Ukrainian counter-offensive, I look at current stories relating to six individuals - Dmitri Medvedev, Anton Siluanov, Sergei Suroviki...
10 Sep 202352min
In Moscow's Shadows 113: And Goodnight Wagner?
After looking at Prigozhin last time, this episode I focus on Wagner. Will it survive in Africa (I suspect not), what this may mean for Russia's Africa non-quite-a-strategy, and will we see a 'Wagneri...
3 Sep 202351min
In Moscow's Shadows 112: Goodbye Prigozhin
What can we say about the death of Prigozhin (beyond good riddance?). At the risk of overstating the case, I feel this is a watershed moment, and Putin's willingness to turn on his own, at the expense...
27 Aug 202346min
In Moscow's Shadows 111: A Nervous Kremlin and a Neglected Police Force
Marking the anniversary of the second day of the 1991 August Coup, the day when momentum began to shift away from the hardliners behind the seizure of power, a look at how the Putin regime - the spiri...
20 Aug 202358min
