In Moscow's Shadows Cellcast: 1 November 2020: Five Things Bugging Me in Western Russia Coverage
Another short 'cellcast', going out directly to my Patrons, and to everyone else a week later. A rant, plain and simple. Sparked by the article 'The Narcissism of The New York Times’ Foreign Coverage'...
8 Nov 202016min
In Moscow's Shadows 15: In conversation with Anna Arutunyan, on sanctions, calling Putin's bluff, and various bunches of guys
In the first In Moscow's Shadows to have a guest, I talk to Anna Arutunyan, analyst and writer on Russia (her The Putin's Mystique is well worth a read if you don't already know it) on her recent arti...
24 Okt 202041min
In Moscow's Shadows 14: The Kremlin, Will and Empire; and, A Fistful of Books #1
Russia has long considered the so-called 'Near Abroad' of post-Soviet states to be its sphere of influence. But does it really have the will to assert hegemony? I'd suggest that it does not, in a whis...
10 Okt 202038min
In Moscow's Shadows Cellcast: 29 September 2020: A Week in the life of Sergei Naryshkin
Sergei Naryshkin, the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and chair of the Russian Historical Society, has been a busy man this past week, involving himself in everything from Belarus t...
5 Okt 20209min
In Moscow's Shadows 13: The GRU, and why is it so hard to leave Putin?
I take a general look at Russian military intelligence, the fearsome GRU (OK, GU for purists), what it is and does and what it isn't and doesn't... And in the second part, I consider why it seems so ...
26 Sep 202034min
In Moscow's Shadows Cellcast: 19 September 2020: Questioning Less about Navalny
A short cellcast 'mini-podcast' released in this case simultaneously to Patrons and publicly. Recording this was, frankly, triggered by exasperation that so many were leaping aboard the 'Question More...
19 Sep 202014min
In Moscow's Shadows 12: Drift in Russian Politics and the Decay of the 'Hybrid Regime'; on Cheating, in dissertations, politics and the underworld
What is going on with Putin and his regime? Less of a distinct answer to that question, and more a pondering of what we can read into the mishandling of a series of recent events, from the Navalny poi...
12 Sep 202027min
In Moscow's Shadows Cellcast: 6 September 2020: Belarus's Strongmen
Released on 6 September to Patrons, public release later. A snapshot of the three key figures within Belarus's security structures: the new head of the KGB, the Interior Minister and the (newish) Defe...
11 Sep 202012min
