In Moscow's Shadows 131: European Strategy and Vorobyov's Prospects
A podcast of two halves. First of all, I look at the dilemmas and limitations facing European (EU and UK) strategy over Ukraine. Why is it so hard? After the break, I consider another of the younger ...
21 Jan 20241h 8min
In Moscow's Shadows 130: Questions I Can't Answer
The essence of podcasting and punditry may be to peddle confident certainties, but often we don’t really know. So today I raise some important questions to which I really don’t know the answer, but wh...
14 Jan 202445min
In Moscow's Shadows 129: It's All About Putin's Eggs
Russia is still gripped by an egg crisis, after prices rose 46% last year. Now the security apparatus is investigating hoarding and profiteering, the Agriculture Ministry is talking price controls and...
7 Jan 202439min
In Moscow's Shadows 128: Politics, War and Lunacy - a look forward to 2024
Less whimsical than the last one, the final episode of 2023 looks ahead to the coming year: the candidates for the presidential elections, the prospects for the war, and - spinning off a deeply-bizar...
29 Dec 202355min
In Moscow's Shadows 127: When Napoleon was Nuked and Other Russian Conspiracy Theories
Was Moscow nuked in 1812? Have a thousand years of history been made up to conceal the power of the 'Russian Horde'? Was Lenin a mushroom? Are reptiloids trying to subvert Russia with Satanism? Of cou...
23 Dec 202355min
In Moscow's Shadows 126: Truth and Tedium in Putin's Marathon Town Hall and the Russian Press
I felt I ought to cover Putin's combined press conference and online town hall, but it was just so, so boring. And maybe that's the point: tedium weaponised as the new electoral strategy. But what els...
17 Dec 202345min
In Moscow's Shadows 125: Putin's Coming Back! And So's the Cold War?
So, surprise, surprise, Putin's standing for re-election. A few thoughts on how it was announced and the vibe around it, before I look at 'Preventing the Next War,' a report from DGAP, the German Coun...
10 Dec 202349min
In Moscow's Shadows 124: Putin's Performative Politics
There's a myth that authoritarian leaders don't have to worry about public politics: arguably they have to worry all the more. Spinning off from the recent bizarre criminalisation of the mythical 'int...
3 Dec 202353min
