In Moscow's Shadows Cellcast: 18 January 2021: What does the Kremlin do with Navalny?
Another short 'cellcast', though given its timeliness, going public straightaway.In this cellcast, recorded on 18 January 2021, I take a very speculative, un-thought-through look at the Kremlin's opti...
18 Jan 202113min
In Moscow's Shadows 21: The Federal Protection Service (FSO) and Russian security politics; and Three Stories About the Opposition
The FSO, the Federal Protection Service (or Federal Guard Service) is more that just Putin's dark-suited bodyguards, or the goose-stepping soldiers at the Eternal Flame. In my latest exploration of Ru...
11 Jan 202144min
Twelve Days of Shadowy Christmas: 4 January: Kulikovo, 1380 to 2021
So Russia has a new laser system, called Peresvet. Pere-who? This gets me talking, for the last of the Twelve Days of Shadowy Christmas cellcasts, about the battle of Kulikovo in 1380 - and why it mat...
11 Jan 202116min
Twelve Days of Shadowy Christmas: 1 January: Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu
How did Defence Minister Shoigu make it from graduating from Krasnoyarsk Poly as a construction engineer to being discussed as a potential future president? In this third cellcast of the 2020-21 Twelv...
8 Jan 202121min
Twelve Days of Shadowy Christmas: 28 December: Directorate K and the FSB's dilemma
How might a scandal from 2019 affect who runs the FSB in 2021? And should we consider levels of elite embezzlement a good index of their confidence? In this second cellcast of the 2020-21 Twelve Days ...
4 Jan 202120min
Twelve Days of Shadowy Christmas: 25 December: Afghan Christmas
Today in 1979, Afghanistan was waking up under Soviet domination. In this first cellcast of the 2020-21 Twelve Days of Shadowy Christmas, I pull out three aspects of that conflict of relevance today. ...
1 Jan 202120min
In Moscow's Shadows 20: Spooks: more Navalny, will the FSB change tack, and did the SVR carry out a 'cyberattack'?
More on the Navalny case, the story that keeps unfolding, following the publication of his conversation with one of his would-be killers, and a rumination on whether there will be implications for the...
22 Dec 202036min
In Moscow's Shadows 19: The Navalny Hit (after the Bellingcat/Insider report)
An impressively detailed investigation by Bellingcat and The Insider meticulously details the Russian Federal Security Service operation against Alexei Navalny, so here is a short podcast episode devo...
15 Dec 202025min
