In Moscow's Shadows 177: Adaptation in Russia and Ukraine
President Zelensky's suggestion that military attempts to retake the occupied territories could be abandoned in return for rapid NATO membership for Ukraine does mark a change in tack. What is driving...
1 Dec 202450min
In Moscow's Shadows 176: Is Andrei Belousov the Lavrov of the Defence Ministry?
Schrödinger's Defence Minister, at once busy and visible yet strangely inconsequential and intangible, what can one make of Andrei Belousov, his rise and his chances of achieving anything in his curre...
24 Nov 202455min
In Moscow's Shadows 175: 'In a dangerous world, strike first' - Russian strategic culture
'Strategic culture' means the underlying cultural assumptions about threats and options that informs a nation's specific strategic choices, and Russia's has been strikingly continuous for centuries. A...
17 Nov 202448min
In Moscow's Shadows 174: Putin, Trump, and the 'Polyphonic' world order
It's impossible to avoid talking about the potential implications of Donald Trump's election, even as its difficult to know for sure what he intends and almost as hard to say anything that hasn't alre...
10 Nov 202437min
In Moscow's Shadows 173: Personalistic Power under Putin
I use reviews of three books to consider the risks and limitations of personalistic explanations of power under Putin, and whether a medieval concept of clan and family actually makes more sense... T...
3 Nov 202449min
In Moscow's Shadows 172: BRICS without Straw
(It seems to be obligatory to use a weak BRICS/bricks pun, so I felt I had to follow...) The BRICS summit in Kazan (a smart place to hold it) gives all the appearances of being a propaganda win for P...
26 Okt 202439min
In Moscow's Shadows bonus minipodcast: North Koreans in Russia?
Released to Patrons yesterday, a bonus mini-pod on the claims that North Korean combat troops are heading to fight in Ukraine and what the media discussion also says about the current discourse. The ...
21 Okt 202416min
In Moscow's Shadows 171: The invisible and invidious Sergei Korolev, perhaps the next head of the FSB
An all-spook episode, as I try to piece together the rise of FSB First Deputy Director Sergei Korolev, who seems the most likely figure to succeed current agency chief Bortnikov. Corruption, clienteli...
20 Okt 202447min
