The Naked Pravda

Back in early October, Meduza learned about a whole archive of transcripts between members of the Clinton administration and Vladimir Putin, dated between 1999 and 2001 — records that were first declassified and published by the Clinton Digital Library in August 2019. We wrote three feature stories based on these archives, highlighting and contextualizing some of the more memorable exchanges between Moscow and Washington. Comparing these conversations to the rhetoric that’s common now, the radically different flavor of today’s diplomacy is apparent. For a better understanding of how this relationship soured so dramatically, “The Naked Pravda” turns to three experts on Russian foreign policy and international relations: (3:13) Stanford University political scientist and former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul describes meeting Vladimir Putin almost 30 years ago and watching his ideology evolve over the decades. (9:58) Cardiff University International Relations Professor Sergey Radchenko argues that there’s more continuity between the Yeltsin and Putin administrations than some scholars like to admit. (15:39) Dr. Carol Saivetz, a senior advisor in the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, describes how Putin lost faith in the West and democracy itself by trying and failing to get the partnership he expected. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Saturdays (or sometimes Fridays). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

A six-week war in Nagorno-Karabakh has ended disastrously for Armenia. Judging by the map, the situation on the ground will revert mostly to the conditions in place before Yerevan’s 1991 war with Baku, leaving Azerbaijani artillery perched just outside the breakaway republic’s capital city and the 50,000 souls who call it home. The big difference this time around is the presence of Russian peacekeepers — about 2,000 of them — who will be there to monitor a Kremlin-brokered truce. Not formally part of the trilateral settlement but still very much involved in the conflict is Turkey, which is expected to field its own monitors in Azerbaijan, albeit outside the Karabakh region. For a better understanding of the violence that took place in this area since late September, and to explore what it means to have won or lost in this war, “The Naked Pravda” turned to three experts: (3:15) Neil Hauer, a Canadian journalist based in the Caucasus who’s reported extensively on conflicts in Georgia, Syria, and Nagorno-Karabakh, describes the mood now in Armenia and Yerevan’s plans for Karabakh’s future. (8:31) Richard Giragosian, the director of the Regional Studies Center (an independent think tank based in Armenia), argues that everyone involved in the six-week war has emerged a loser, in at least some respects. (16:31) Rob Lee, a former Marine engineer officer and a current doctoral student at King’s College London, explains how drones made all the difference in the latest clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Saturdays (or sometimes Fridays). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

On October 5, thousands of opposition demonstrators took to the streets of Bishkek to protest the official results of Kyrgyzstan’s parliamentary elections. About a dozen different opposition parties had failed to overcome the seven percent threshold needed to get into parliament and two pro-government parties had won nearly half the seats. The protesters demanded a repeat vote and on October 6 elections officials relented and invalidated the results. Since then, Kyrgyzstan’s population has seen a lot more turmoil than the opposition protesters bargained for: parliament appointed a new prime minister, the president stepped down, and election officials scheduled a repeat parliamentary vote only to see it postponed indefinitely. Meanwhile, lawmakers have been pushing through legislation on changing the constitution and the country is planning to hold presidential elections in January. So how did all of this happen in such a short period of time? “The Naked Pravda” invited three experts on the show to speak about the lead up to the vote, the ensuing political crisis, and whether or not Russia has anything to do with it: (2:35) Bektour Iskender, journalist and co-founder of Kloop — an independent media organization based in Kyrgyzstan, recalls how the post-election protests escalated into an unexpected political crisis. (5:36) Dr. Erica Marat — an associate professor at the National Defense University’s College of International Affairs in Washington D.C., whose research focuses on violence, mobilization, and security institutions in Eurasia — explains why Sadyr Japarov’s lightning-fast rise to power can be considered a coup. (15:30) Colleen Wood — a doctoral candidate in political science at Columbia University, who researches civil society and identity in Central Asia — discusses what social media reveals about social and political cleavages in Kyrgyzstan. (39:02) All three guests share their take on the Kremlin’s response to Kyrgyzstan’s political upheaval. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays (or sometimes Saturdays). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

In April 2020, Russia shipped 45 ventilator machines to New York City as part of what became a humanitarian exchange with America at the height of the Big Apple’s initial coronavirus outbreak. But what should have been a heartwarming display of cooperation in challenging times quickly became a political boondoggle. American hospitals were unable to use the lifesaving machines due to a lack of adapters to convert their required electrical voltage. Subsequently, a few weeks after the Aventa-M ventilators were delivered, several of the same models reportedly burst into flames at two hospitals in Moscow and St. Petersburg, killing six people and raising concerns about the devices’ safety. The ventilators also became politically toxic in the United States after U.S. officials completed the equipment exchange with Russia by shipping medical supplies worth several times more than what Moscow sent to New York. Additionally, the Russian machinery’s manufacturer, “Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies” (a Rostec subsidiary), is currently under U.S. sanctions imposed against Moscow (though White House officials say the sanctions don’t apply to medical supplies). Just a few days ago, on October 19, BuzzFeed News correspondent Chris Miller reported that the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency “essentially tossed [the Russian ventilators] in the trash.” To find out more about the U.S. government’s decision, “The Naked Pravda” spoke to Chris Miller. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays (or sometimes Saturdays). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

Armenia and Azerbaijan reached a fragile ceasefire agreement in Moscow on October 10 after nearly a dozen hours in negotiations. The two sides will suspend hostilities so bodies and prisoners of war can be exchanged, while diplomats from Yerevan and Baku debate a more lasting resolution. Since the late 1980s, the fight for the Nagorno-Karabakh region has killed roughly 20,000 people and made refugees of hundreds of thousands more. Since the most recent escalation that began on September 27, 2020 (already the second resumption of hostilities this year), several hundred soldiers have reportedly died in combat, along with several dozen civilians. “The Naked Pravda” asked four experts to explain what fuels the longest-running war on former Soviet soil: (3:50) Thomas de Waal — a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe, the author of “Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War” (2003), and more recently the coauthor of “Beyond Frozen Conflict“ (2020) — explains why the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is more dangerous than many people realize. (8:19) Jeffrey Mankoff, a distinguished research fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at U.S. National Defense University, discusses what’s happened on the ground Nagorno-Karabakh this September. (12:05) Journalist Arzu Geybulla describes growing up in Azerbaijan and falling out of favor with the government. (23:07) Kevork Oskanian, an honorary research fellow at the University of Birmingham and the co-author of “Fear, Weakness, and Power in the Post-Soviet South Caucasus” (2013), breaks down the local political pressures in Armenia and Azerbaijan. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays (or sometimes Saturdays). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

The historian Stephen Cohen died on September 18 at the age of 81. Though he became something of a pariah among American Russianists in his final years, particularly after 2014 (thanks to his views on the Ukraine conflict, which often dovetailed with Kremlin talking points), Cohen was perhaps best known professionally for his 1973 biography about Nikolai Bukharin, the Bolshevik revolutionary he believed represented an alternative path for Soviet socialism that derailed into collectivization and mass violence because of Joseph Stalin. Cohen had similar misgivings about Boris Yeltsin undoing Mikhail Gorbachev’s Perestroika. This week, Meduza published an obituary for Cohen written by Ivan Kurilla, a professor of history and international relations at European University at St. Petersburg. For another perspective on Cohen’s legacy among Russia scholars, “The Naked Pravda” turns to historian Sean Guillory, the digital scholarship curator in the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and a fellow podcaster. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays (or sometimes Saturdays). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

About a decade ago, after a temporary falling out with Vladimir Putin, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko tried to pivot his country to the West. In this endeavor, he had help from a British PR firm called “Bell Pottinger” that once employed some of the most influential spin-doctors in the world. The campaign was a complete failure: the consultants left empty-handed and Lukashenko became an international pariah once again. In August 2020, after workers at state television and radio broadcasters in Belarus started walking off the job in protest as the police brutally dispersed opposition demonstrations, a handful of independent journalists and activists reported that whole brigades of “strikebreakers” from Russia arrived to replace these employees. Meduza investigative editor Alexey Kovalev researched both of these stories, discovering that the oligarch Boris Berezovsky bankrolled Lukashenko’s attempt to win over the West, and that Russian journalists now in Minsk aren’t so much replacing Belarusian journalists as they are reshaping the local media’s approach to propaganda. Meduza also spoke to Alex Kokcharov, a country risk analyst who focuses on Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia, and the Caucasus, to learn more about younger Belarusians’ media diets. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays (or sometimes Saturdays). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

The German media reported on September 9 that Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny was poisoned with a new type of “Novichok” nerve agent, more dangerous than any variation previously identified. Earlier in the month, Meduza science editor Alexander Ershov interviewed biochemist Marc-Michael Blum to find out more about how analytical chemistry is able to identify these poisons in patients and what the outlook is for Navalny’s recovery. (Read the interview’s transcript here.) On social media, it’s easy to find skeptics who question the German specialists’ conclusions — particularly because the implications of a nerve-agent attack against an opposition leader on his home soil are severe and strongly suggest the state authorities’ involvement — but such incredulity is hard to maintain in the face of Dr. Blum’s explanations. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays (or sometimes Saturdays). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

On September 1, 2020, the Russian newspaper Kommersant ran a story that looked like a real bombshell before it fizzled out. The report, titled “Hackers Appeal to the U.S. State Department: American Voter Data Appears on Russian Darknet,” credits a Russian hacker platform with posting millions of American voters’ personal data (mainly voters in the swing state of Michigan, but also in Connecticut, Florida, and North Carolina) and then profiting off a U.S. government project to pay foreigners for tips about election interference. Kommersant also quoted experts who warned that the publication of the voter data could be a “provocation” ahead of this year’s presidential election in the U.S. But the voter data in question wasn’t hacked or leaked — it’s all publicly available — and the U.S. State Department says it’s yet to pay anyone for intelligence about election interference. Kommersant’s report isn’t entirely false, however. Russian hackers are sharing the personal information of millions of American voters, and that’s not all. To understand why this is happening and what may have motivated Kommersant’s reporting, “The Naked Pravda” turns to three analysts working on cyber-threats, digital diplomacy, and Russian politics. (5:28) Ian Litschko, a cyber-threat intelligence analyst, explains why Russian hackers traffic open-source U.S. voter data. (11:33) Oleg Shakirov, a consultant at the PIR Center in Moscow and an expert in European security and digital diplomacy, discusses the novelty of a “Russiagate” story that broke in Russia, not in the West. (17:03) Yana Gorokhovskaia, an independent researcher on Russian politics, describes the intended audience for Kommersant’s report and why it matters. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays (or sometimes Saturdays). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

If you’ve read anything about Russia’s coronavirus vaccine, “Sputnik V,” you know that it’s rolling out to the public in October, just as Phase III trials begin — meaning that researchers still have no idea how effective the product actually is. So far, the scientists developing Sputnik V say they’ve combined Phase I and Phase II testing and confirmed its safety and immunogenicity, but they’ve yet to compare it to a placebo and the handful of patients already injected were all relatively young and healthy. The Gamaleya Research Institute, which developed Sputnik V, says it hopes to manufacture 3-5 million doses annually, once production is up and running. A handful of other Russian biotech companies will be manufacturing the vaccine, as well. Russia says it’s already received orders for a billion doses around the world. Suspiciously and unlike most foreign researchers working on a coronavirus vaccine, the Gamaleya Research Institute has yet to publish any trial results in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Despite promises from the Russian team, they haven’t shared any details about their vaccine tests with the global expert community. To learn more about Russia’s coronavirus vaccine and explore the risks and research behind this product, The Naked Pravda turns to two social scientists: Judyth Twigg, a political science professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University, who studies healthcare in Russia and Eurasia, and Cynthia Buckley, a sociology professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, who works on global health and social demography in Eurasia. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays (or sometimes weekends). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

Opposition politician and Anti-Corruption Foundation creator Alexey Navalny was hospitalized early on Thursday, August 20, in critical condition. At the time this podcast was recorded, he was in a coma and breathing through a ventilator in Omsk, where his flight home to Moscow was forced to make an emergency landing when he became violently ill. “The Naked Pravda” reviews what we know about Navalny’s situation and looks back at recent poisonings in Russia, as well as the muted police response in these cases, to get a sense of what he is up against. Meduza in English managing editor Kevin Rothrock discusses past attacks on Navalny as well as the alleged poisonings of Pyotr Verzilov, Sergey Mokhov, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Alexander Litvinenko, Viktor Yushchenko, and Anna Politkovskaya. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays (or sometimes Saturdays). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

On August 9, Belarus concludes its most contentious, openly dirtiest, and toughest presidential campaign ever. During the race, one leading (albeit unregistered) candidate has been imprisoned (as well as two campaign chiefs of staff) and another fled the country altogether. Long-time incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko (Alyaksandr Lukashenka) now faces a surprisingly formidable challenge from Svetlana Tikhanovskaya (Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya), a woman thrust into the nation’s political spotlight. To understand better what is at stake in the race, what it means for Lukashenko to compete against a woman, and why the Belarusian authorities arrested nearly three dozen alleged Russian mercenaries just days before the election, “The Naked Pravda” turned to three experts on Belarusian politics. (3:03) Maryia Rohava, doctoral candidate at the University of Oslo whose research focuses on nationalism, symbolic politics in post-Soviet autocracies, and identity studies (6:10) Ryhor Astapenia, fellow at Chatham House and founder and research director of the Center of New Ideas in Belarus (7:50) Franak Viačorka, journalist in Belarus and creative director at RFE/RL’s Belarus service “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays (or sometimes Saturdays). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

For the past two years, several major state news organizations in Russia have been working with China’s biggest media conglomerate to trade publicity about each nation’s greatest achievements. Beijing’s efforts have fallen mostly flat in Russia, however, thanks to shortages of trained personnel and shortcomings in China’s grasp of the Russian mediasphere. Moscow, meanwhile, has struggled as the propaganda pact’s junior partner. To learn more about how the Russian and Chinese state media work together, why this cooperation has stumbled, and how geopolitics plays into this relationship, “The Naked Pravda” turned to three experts, as well as Meduza’s own investigative editor: (1:23) Meduza investigative editor Alexey Kovalev explains how he first learned about media cooperation between state broadcasters in Russia and China. (5:07) Maria Repnikova, an expert in Chinese media politics and an assistant professor in Global Communication at Georgia State University, warns against using too negative a frame to analyze Chinese foreign broadcasting. (11:48) Alexander Gabuev, who chairs the Carnegie Moscow Center’s “Russia in the Asia-Pacific Program,” describes major differences between the Russian and Chinese media markets. (22:23) Professor of International Relations Sergey Radchenko discusses Moscow’s cautious approach to the expansion of Chinese influence, like the Belt and Road Initiative. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays (or sometimes Saturdays). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

In reporting and analysis about Russian politics, the question is ubiquitous: How does Vladimir Putin see things? While there’s no shortage of efforts to read the Russian president’s mind, a more grounded approach would be to examine the intelligence that shapes Putin’s policymaking. One of the Kremlin’s best-trusted sources of information about popular moods is the sociological work conducted by the country’s Secret Service, the Federal Protective Service (FSO). Most Russians are unaware that the FSO, in addition to guarding top state officials, is responsible for conducting sociological surveys and monitoring popular opinion and the country’s political situation. The agency’s findings are never published, but these data inform some of President Putin’s biggest decisions. For example, fairly recently, FSO polls showing rising national discontent reportedly influenced the Putin administration’s decision to expedite the reopening of Moscow and the rollback of its coronavirus quarantine measures. To learn more about this kind of polling and the state of sociological research generally in Russia, “The Naked Pravda” turned to two sociologists who work on Russia: (4:41) Denis Volkov, the deputy director at the Levada Center, explains how Russia’s elites interpret and utilize polling. (7:34) Маrgarita Zavadskaya, a researcher at the University of Helsinki and the European University in St. Petersburg, discusses problems with big data and selling state officials on sociology. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays (or sometimes Saturdays). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

On the morning of July 7, federal agents arrested Ivan Safronov, a longtime journalist who recently took a job as a communications adviser to Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin. Safronov is being charged with treason and faces up to 20 years in prison. His lawyers have been granted limited access to the case file compiled by the Federal Security Service, which indicates that Safronov is suspected of selling secret information to Czech intelligence agents about Russian military cooperation with an unnamed African Middle Eastern country. The Czechs supposedly recruited him in 2012 and he allegedly sent them the data over the Internet five years later in 2017. Outside the FSB’s headquarters in Lubyanka Square, during Safronov’s arraignment hearing on July 7, dozens of journalists picketed, each taking turns holding up signs in his defense, and police officers arrested them, one by one, for an unlawful assembly. To understand more about trends in policing journalists and reporting on national security in Russia, “The Naked Pravda” turns to two guests on today’s show: (6:46) Rachel Denber, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia Division, looks back at how Russian journalists have been treated for the past 15 years. (14:49) Dmitry Gorenburg, a senior research scientist in the Strategic Studies division of CNA and an associate at the Harvard University Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies (as well as the author of the Russian Military Reform blog), explains why work like Ivan Safronov’s military reporting is essential. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays (or sometimes Saturdays). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

On Friday, June 26, a Moscow court announced verdicts in the controversial “Seventh Studio” case involving the alleged embezzlement of almost 129 million rubles (about $1.9 million) allocated to the Culture Ministry’s “Platforma” project (a state-led contemporary art incubator). All four defendants — director Kirill Serebrennikov, former Culture Ministry official Sofia Apfelbaum, former “Seventh Studio” general producer Alexey Malobrodsky, and the studio’s former CEO, Yuri Itin — maintain their innocence. This week, “The Naked Pravda” takes a closer look at Kirill Serebrennikov to try to understand what makes him so special in Russia’s art world. In this episode: (2:54) Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker‘s Moscow correspondent and the author of the new book “Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia,” explains the contradictions that have defined Serebrennikov’s career in theater. (7:04) Maria Alyokhina, a founding member of Pussy Riot and Mediazona, describes what makes Serebrennikov unique in Moscow’s art scene and how he cultivated solidarity among artists and entertainers. (18:06) The Calvert Journal features editor Katie Marie Davies explains the role of state subsidies in Russian theater and cinema. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

On today’s show, host Kevin Rothrock speaks to online-disinformation investigation pioneer Ben Nimmo about his latest research into a sweeping Russian disinformation campaign called “Secondary Infektion.” Mr. Nimmo is the founder of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab and last year he became the head of investigations for the social-media monitoring company “Graphika.” This week, Graphika released a new report about a long-running Russian information operation that is allegedly responsible for forgeries, election interference, and attacks on Kremlin critics across six years and 300 different websites and online platforms. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays (or sometimes Saturdays). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

This week’s show looks at Russian nationalism, activism in Russia against police brutality, and the American alt-right. We also return specifically to remarks by Mikhail Svetov from last week’s show about an initiative he’s calling “Russian Lives Matter.” The Black Lives Matter movement in the United States has occasioned a global conversation about racism and institutionalized prejudice. These themes resonate everywhere, even in countries without America’s legacy of slavery and segregation. In Russia, some right-wing groups have sought to adapt and appropriate BLM’s terminology, both cynically for publicity and deliberately in order to diminish what they’ve described as a divisive leftist upheaval. In this episode: (4:27) Meduza features editor Hilah Kohen dissects Mikhail Svetov’s motivations for the “Russian Lives Matter” initiative. (5:33) Marlene Laruelle — an associate director and research professor at the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University and the co-director of PONARS — breaks down what Russian nationalism actually is. (21:56) Investigative journalist Casey Michel explains America’s alt-right. (30:25) “Pussy Riot” activist and Mediazona publisher Peter Verzilov talks about sustained activism in Russia against brutality in the justice system. (40:31) Poet, musician, and socialist activist Kirill Medvedev argues that “Russian Lives Matter” is how nationalists “wink” at each other while pretending to be inclusive. (44:53) Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon, a history instructor at San Jacinto College, responds to Mikhail Svetov’s interpretation of the American Civil Rights Movement. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays (or sometimes Saturdays). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

On today’s episode, we’ll hear from five guests about race and injustice in Russia and the Soviet Union, including from the activist behind a new initiative against police brutality in Russia built around the slogan “Russian Lives Matter.” As you may have guessed, this adapts the better known phrase “Black Lives Matter,” which is the rallying cry for an enormous social movement that is sweeping the United States. Both of these slogans are ostensibly about opposition to police brutality, but they embody very different perspectives on injustice. Black Lives Matter, or BLM, has dominated the news cycle in the U.S., largely supplanting coronavirus as the nation’s leading story. The movement has attracted attention in Russia, as well, where the state media has geopolitical reasons to highlight how the United States is a racist and failed democracy, and where many anti-Kremlin, typically Western-leaning oppositionists look to places like the United States as an example for better governance and civil society. In other words, they’re watching the U.S. from Russia, and Black Lives Matter is now front and center. In this episode: (5:56) Libertarian Party member and “Civil Society” movement head Mikhail Svetov explains the “Russian Lives Matter” initiative. (17:24) Meduza features editor Hilah Kohen argues that BLM is wrongly portrayed as riots and divisiveness. (22:59) Rogers Sure, a Kenyan man who studies engineering in Yekaterinburg, describes what it’s like to be African in Russia. (30:54) Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon, a history instructor at San Jacinto College, summarizes her fieldwork and research into African Americans living in the USSR and minority scholars in Slavic studies. (44:53) Meredith Clark, an associate professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia, breaks down the fundamentals of Black Lives Matter, about which you can learn more here. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays (or sometimes Saturdays). Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

This week’s guest is Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker‘s Moscow correspondent and the author of the new book “Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia,” which offers a look at Putin’s Russia without focusing on Putin, studying a handful of individual case studies and the moral choices of various individuals who have played unique or interesting roles in contemporary Russia. Where does this book fit in the wider literature on Russia and ethics? Are questions of conscience a problem only for intellectuals? How broad is the power of the book’s explanatory prism? And how have time and now the coronavirus pandemic affected the trends laid out in the book? Joshua answered these questions and more. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

In the past several weeks, Meduza has written extensively about the newsroom controversy at Vedomosti, one of Russia’s top business newspapers. Most recently, Meduza published a joint investigation with a handful of other independent news outlets (including Vedomosti itself) about the backroom wheeling and dealing that’s guided the outlet’s ownership for the past five years. In this episode of “The Naked Pravda,” host Kevin Rothrock reviews what we know about developments at Vedomosti and speaks to Financial Times Moscow correspondent Max Seddon about the story and business journalism in Russia more broadly. Listen to the end and you’ll be treated to an anecdote about how reporters rekindled the bromance between President Vladimir Putin and action film star Steven Seagal. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

On May 4, 2020, the Pulitzer Prize Board announced the latest winners of the most coveted award in journalism. The staff of The New York Times won prizes in three different categories: international reporting, investigative reporting, and commentary. The first honor was awarded for “a set of enthralling stories, reported at great risk, exposing the predations of Vladimir Putin’s regime.” The winning work includes six articles and two videos. Not one of the stories is actually set inside Russia: the reports are about wars in Libya and Syria, elections in Madagascar and the Central African Republic, and murders in Bulgaria and Ukraine. The Russian authorities naturally condemned the prize selection, but criticism of The New York Times‘s award-winning journalism also came from several Russian investigative reporters, including Roman Badanin, who says his news outlet, Proekt, broke the story at the heart of at least one of the winning works that earned this years’ international reporting Pulitzer: an article by Michael Schwirtz, released in November 2019, titled “How Russia Meddles Abroad for Profit: Cash, Trolls and a Cult Leader,” which appeared eight months after Proekt’s “Master and Chef: How Evgeny Prigozhin Led the Russian Offensive in Africa” and repeats many of the same findings, chronicling similar events and describing many of the same circumstances and characters. To understand the dispute better, “The Naked Pravda” spoke to Roman Badanin and Meduza corresponded with a representative from The New York Times. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

In a world engulfed by the coronavirus pandemic, “The Naked Pravda” travels back in time to the carefree 1980s, when Americans and Russians worried about simpler things like World War III. Fears in U.S. popular culture that the Cold War might turn hot culminated in 1984 with the film “Red Dawn,” starring Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen, about a group of high school students resisting occupation by invading Soviet, Cuban, and Nicaraguan troops. Even if you haven’t seen the movie, you’ve probably seen people on the Internet shouting “Wolverines!” at each other — a reference to the name Red Dawn’s protagonists adopt for their guerrilla group. Soviet-born journalist Slava Malamud joins this discussion about Cold War cinema. Last year, his tweets about the HBO miniseries “Chernobyl” gained enormous popularity, attracting thousands of likes and reposts, including from Craig Mazin, the show’s creator. In May 2019, Meduza published a story from Slava about his stepfather’s experience as a liquidator at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

In regions and cities across Russia, state officials are taking extraordinary measures to limit people’s movements and curb the spread of coronavirus. On March 18, Russia’s Supreme Court even imposed a moratorium on all hearings across the nation’s judicial system except for particularly “urgent cases,” though judges have enormous leeway here to decide what meets this threshold. Meanwhile, Russia’s prison system has effectively locked down, and observers warn that we now even less know about what happens at these facilities than we did before. To get a better grasp of the coronavirus containment measures’ effects on Russia’s justice system, “The Naked Pravda” turned to two pairs of human rights activists and scholars, as well as the author of a Meduza investigative report about how the coronavirus quarantine is making it even harder in Russia to find justice in the courts. In this episode: (3:25) Liliya Yapparova, Meduza investigative journalist (6:01) Kirill Koroteev, head of international practice at the “Agora” international human rights group (11:45) Valentina Dekhtyarenko, project manager at the “Open Russia” human rights group (14:13) Dr. Olga Zeveleva, postdoctoral researcher at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, contributing to the Gulag Echoes project (21:50) Ksenia Runova, junior researcher at the Institute for the Rule of Law at the European University at St. Petersburg “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

In late 2019, many Internet users started noticing that the Russian state media was increasingly describing gas explosions as “gas pops” in news coverage — even when the incidents caused major damage to life and property. In fact, the number of “gas pops” mentioned in news reports jumped from a few dozen stories in early 2017 to thousands of such reports by January 2020. Meduza’s sources in the presidential administration and Russia’s security agencies say this is the result of a targeted policy to introduce more “favorable information conditions” meant to avoid a public panic when reporting gas explosions. Since February 2020, when Meduza first published its findings about “gas pops” in Russian headlines, the significance of euphemisms in news reporting has only grown with the global spread of coronavirus. To understand this phenomenon better, “The Naked Pravda” welcomed back media scholar Sarah Oates, a professor at the University of Maryland, and Alexey Kovalev, Meduza‘s head of investigative reporting. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

In late March 2020, after the owners of the newspaper Vedomosti confirmed that they’d reached a preliminary agreement to sell off the publication, deputy editors appealed to the paper’s new owners in a letter where they warned that the newsroom is in chaos, advertisers are in shock, and subscribers are demanding refunds for paid subscriptions. The letter’s authors argue that the only remedy is to appoint a new chief editor from among the newsroom’s own ranks. The crisis follows the decision by Vedomosti‘s new owners to install a new editor-in-chief named Andrey Shmarov, who promptly alienated the staff in a bawdy introduction where he touted his ignorance about Vedomosti‘s own code of ethics, professed not to read the newspaper itself, and then defended Harvey Weinstein and expressed skepticism about the very concept of sexual harassment. To understand the significance of the trouble at Vedomosti, “The Naked Pravda” turned to Vedomosti editor-at-large Maxim Trudolyubov, who helped launched the publication more than 20 years ago. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

LGBTQ activists in the Russophone world face obstacles that many in the Anglophone world do not, but that means they also find ways to survive that defy the imagination. One way queer Russian speakers have found to work through those life-and-death decisions is writing science fiction. Through stories about augmented reality, lesbian seduction in space, sentient plants, and more, activists have offered political commentary on post-Soviet oppression that’s impossible to find in the mainstream opposition. To understand how Russophone writers are using sci-fi to map out the region’s political future, “The Naked Pravda” reached out to scholars in Japan, Kyrgyzstan, and Sweden. They walked us through the broader Russian sci-fi scene and reflected on how speculative writing has changed their own scholarship and activism. In this episode: (6:33) Mikhail Suslov, an assistant professor of Russian History and Politics at the University of Copenhagen currently sheltering in Sweden, explains why the vast majority of Russian sci-fi published today has ties to the Kremlin and the Orthodox Church. (14:29) Georgy Mamedov, an academic who chairs the board for the LGBTQ organization Labrys in Kyrgyzstan, asks why so much queer Russophone science fiction fantasizes about complete separation from the rest of the world even as the people who write it get more and more determined to engage with the homophobes around them. (16:19) Syinat Sultanalieva, a prominent activist and a PhD candidate in international studies at the University of Tsukuba, breaks down the geopolitical undertones of her short story “Element 174.” “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

As COVID-19 spreads rapidly across the world, the disease is pushing healthcare systems to the brink. The number of reported cases is low but rising in Russia, where officials have imposed limits on public assemblies and major events, while resisting the more drastic measures deployed in Asia and now rolling out in the West. To get a better grasp of what to expect from Russia’s hospitals and medical science, “The Naked Pravda” turned to a handful of experts who study healthcare in Russia. We also spoke to several people living in Moscow, to hear about life on the ground during the pandemic. In this episode: (3:04) Yale University Professor of Epidemiology and of Pharmacology Robert Heimer explains how a coronavirus test actually works. (6:11) Virginia Commonwealth University Professor of Political Science Judyth Twigg highlights the flaws in Russia’s official coronavirus case numbers. (13:41) Georgetown University Professor Emeritus of Government and International Affairs Harley Balzer pours cold water on claims that Russian import substitution has been a success. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

We’ve known it was coming since January when Vladimir Putin warned the nation, but now it’s moving at full throttle and threatens to inflict untold damage. No, it’s not the coronavirus — it’s the other calamity currently unfolding in Russia: a massive campaign to rewrite the Constitution so that Vladimir Putin’s presidency might continue until 2036. When this episode was recorded, all that stood between major constitutional reforms and enactment were a ruling from Russia’s Constitutional Court and a nationwide vote that draws the support of at least half the Russians who bother to vote. Federal and regional legislators have moved with lightning speed in the past week, all under a cloud of dubious legality. To find out more about what laws are being bent or trampled in the campaign to allow Vladimir Putin another two presidential terms, “The Naked Pravda” turned to three scholars in Russia and the UK. In this episode: (3:24) Ben Noble, an assistant professor in Russian politics at the University College London, explains that Russian lawmakers moved so quickly with the Kremlin’s constitutional amendments because this was a top personal priority for Vladimir Putin. (7:15) Ella Paneyakh, a sociologist at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg, argues that legislators waited until the last minute to move forward with many amendments, polluting the legislation with a lot of “bad law.” (14:30) Jane Henderson, an academic lawyer at King’s College London and an expert in Russia’s legal system, breaks down the ways to revise Russia’s Constitution and the pitfalls of the theoretical checks and balances put in place. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

The Democratic Party’s primaries are underway in the United States, where the country’s increasingly left-leaning political party is flirting with democratic socialist Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders as its nominee. Additionally, recent reports citing U.S. national intelligence that Russian operatives are again trying to interfere in the American presidential election have revived the media’s interest in “RussiaGate” discourse that finally faded only last year with the release of the Mueller Report. With all this talk of “the Russians,” however, what do Russian people in the U.S. actually think about the presidential race? On this episode of “The Naked Pravda,” host Kevin Rothrock spoke to seven liberal- and left-leaning Russians who currently reside in the United States about their views concerning the Democratic primaries and what they think of “RussiaGate” news coverage in the American media. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

Earlier this month, Meduza published an article by Andrey Pertsev about President Vladimir Putin’s shifting rhetoric when discussing the 1939 Soviet-Nazi nonaggression pact, as well as his growing criticism of Polish foreign policy in the year before the USSR cut a deal with Adolf Hitler. Despite being many decades old, these events remain hotly debated in Eastern Europe for obvious reasons: millions died in the conflict, which ended with Poland in the Soviet bloc for more than 40 years, and questions about blame and who only did “what was necessary” are still issues that offend and excite. That is undoubtedly why political elites today in both Russia and Poland often talk about the war, defending their own country’s legacy against allegations from abroad. On this episode of “The Naked Pravda,” however, we turn not to political elites, but four historians. Can scholarly work establish blame? Is this something that drives academic work? What is whitewashed in the debate playing out in speeches and news headlines right now? Listen to the show and find out. In this episode: (4:26) Geoffrey Roberts, a professor of history at the University College Cork in Ireland, explains how Vladimir Putin apparently sees the history of the late 1930s. (7:33) Tom Junes, a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow and a historian at the European University Institute in Florence, says the only country we can rationally blame for starting WWII is Nazi Germany. (13:10) Arch Getty, a distinguished research professor of history at UCLA, says Putin gets more right about the history of the late 1930s than he gets wrong. (21:48) Ivan Kurilla, a professor of history and international relations at European University at St. Petersburg, discusses the challenges now facing historians of the 20th century in Russia and Eastern Europe. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

In mid-January, administrators at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics (HSE, perhaps the best university in Russia, shared a proposal to impose greater restrictions on political activism within the university that would have prohibited individuals affiliated with HSE from mentioning this connection when discussing political issues or taking part in what school officials described as “socially divisive” activities. The university also announced that HSE is stripping all student media groups of their official status, apparently in response to the actions of a single student outlet called Doxa. About a week later, on January 24, HSE’s Academic Council held a 10-hour meeting. Among many issues, the council discussed the proposed amendments to the school’s internal rules, ultimately watering down many of the most draconian suggestions. To find out more about this situation and understand how it compares to political freedoms on U.S. campuses, “The Naked Pravda” spoke to a handful of scholars in Russia and America. In this episode: (1:53) Greg Yudin, a senior research fellow and associate professor of sociology at the Higher School of Economics, says HSE’s administration listened to students and reached a reasonable compromise. (4:28) Armen Aramyan, an editor at Doxa and a graduate student at the Higher School of Economics, says the amended rules adopted by HSE’s Academic Council are still too vague and restrictive. (7:42) Andrey Lavrov, HSE’s public relations director, addresses the compromise reached between the administration and disgruntled students. (22:15) Kris Olds and Mark Johnson, two scholars at the University of Wisconsin–Madison , describe restrictions on political activism on U.S. college campuses. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

The “Agora” human rights group and digital activists at Roskomsvoboda recently released a report on Russian Internet freedom in 2019, where they argue that the state authorities have settled on an Internet policy vector focused on “control, censorship, and isolation.” Late last year, Meduza published a story about how a Federal Protective Service veteran and the descendant of one of Russia’s most celebrated families of missile engineers has been appointed to serve as the director of a powerful new monitoring center inside Roskomnadzor, Russia’s state censor, which is responsible for enforcing legislation that took effect in November 2019 that is ostensibly intended “to ensure the integrity, continuity, stability, resilience, and security of the functioning of the Internet’s Russian national segment.” The law, which charges a new division of Roskomnadzor with ensuring the RuNet’s stable operation and defense from external threats, is convoluted and potentially unenforceable. To find out more about Russia’s push for Internet isolation and its feasibility, “The Naked Pravda” turns to three experts. In this episode: (4:35) Tanya Lokot, an assistant professor in the School of Communications at Dublin City University, looks at the strategic thinking in Moscow. (9:28) Alena Epifanova, a program officer at the German Council on Foreign Relations and author of “Deciphering Russia’s ‘Sovereign Internet Law,” explains deep packet inspection. (14:23) Marielle Wijermars, an assistant professor in cyber-security and politics at Maastricht University in the Netherlands and a visiting researcher at the University of Helsinki, asks why Russian regulators don’t enforce all the Internet regulations on the books. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

In recent years, we’ve witnessed a strange convergence of Russian and American conspiratorial thinking. They’re talking about each other again in Moscow and Washington, often spinning stories that aren’t exactly rooted in facts. Whether it’s Russiagate in the United States or color revolution in Russia and countries across the former Soviet Union, diabolical plots are afoot. To find out what drives popular conspiracy theories in Russia and the U.S., “The Naked Pravda” turned to a handful of scholars who study the subject. Today’s show also takes a broader look at how Russians and Americans see themselves and each other. How did we get on this subject? Last month, Meduza investigative correspondent Liliya Yapparova, whose work we’ve discussed before on this podcast, wrote an article about a curious college course taught by Vitaly Grigorev, a military veteran and former instructor at the KGB Higher School. This winter term, Grigorev’s students in “national systems of information security” at the MIREA Russian Technological University — one of Russia’s biggest technological schools — are learning about many strange concepts, including popular conspiracy theories, like the “Dulles Plan” (which claims that former CIA chief Allen Dulles plotted to destroy the USSR by corrupting its “cultural heritage” and “moral values”). In this episode: (2:15) Liliya Yapparova tells the story behind her story. (6:02) Scott Radnitz explains the political science of studying conspiracy theories. (8:48) Ilya Yablokov, author of “Fortress Russia,” distinguishes between grassroots and elite conspiracy theories. (16:29) Eliot Borenstein, author of “Plots Against Russia,” says American unreflexivity is the stuff of Russian culture’s dreams. (29:46) Sean Guillory, host of the “SRB Podcast,” recalls America’s Red Scare during the race riots of the early 20th century. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

Most weeks, it’s fair to say that you could probably roll your eyes at a 30-minute podcast about the inner workings of executive power in Russia. But the issue is suddenly urgent. Two days ago, Vladimir Putin delivered his annual state-of-the-nation speech, where he surprised the country by calling for Constitutional amendments that would radically redistribute power in the Russian state, possibly weakening the presidential administration. And then his entire cabinet resigned, and long-time Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was moved (some would say demoted) to a new number-two spot on Russia’s Security Council. While you never really need an excuse in Russia to talk about Vladimir Putin or the Kremlin, the inspiration for this episode of “The Naked Pravda” was Andrey Pertsev’s October 2019 story about Sergey Kiriyenko, Putin’s current first deputy chief of staff and the supposed manager of Russia’s domestic politics. But the article is more than a Kiriyenko profile. It offers a broader look at his office in the Kremlin and at the Putin presidential administration itself, which remains enormously hard to comprehend, even two decades after Putin first took office. To understand the mechanics of Kremlin analysis, or Kremlinology, host Kevin Rothrock turned to some of the brightest political experts around. In this episode: (3:51) Maria Lipman on Kremlinology’s shortcomings (5:42) Konstantin Gaaze says Russia’s state ideology was designed accidentally as a “life hack” (8:10) Brian Taylor on the presidential administration’s relationship with Russia’s Constitution (22:28) Yana Gorokhovskaia says the proposed reforms will weaken Russia’s super-presidential system (24:14) Sam Greene highlights the newfound importance of the State Council (25:58) Mark Galeotti explains Dmitry Medvedev’s new home: the Security Council “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

According to a report by the news agency “Rossiya Segodnya,” almost half of the articles in the foreign press about Russia are “negative.” This recent study leans heavily on the British media (which makes up more than a third of the entire sample), where nearly 40 percent of the selected coverage is supposedly biased against Russia. Meduza learned that hundreds of the articles Rossiya Segodnya examined in the British press share the same author: a man who’s worked in Russia since 1992 and now simply rewrites blurbs he finds in Russian tabloids, selected for him by Russian staff working at his news agency. To find out more about this peculiar individual and learn why the Russian authorities devote resources to studies like the one released this fall, “The Naked Pravda” spoke to Meduza‘s head of investigative reporting, Alexey Kovalev, who profiled Stewart’s bizarre career in journalism in an article this October, and to media scholars Sarah Oates and Vasily Gatov. In this episode: (2:47) Alexey Kovalev explains how he found out about Will Stewart, a prolific British reporter in Moscow who turned to tabloids after years of serious journalism. (9:46) Sarah Oates argues that officials in Moscow shouldn’t be surprised by the Western media’s Russia coverage, and it’s the trivialization of Russia that’s really vexing. (16:09) Vasily Gatov describes the “symbiosis” of security functionaries and public relations spin doctors who guide state decision making in Russia. (24:28) Concluding remarks by your host, Kevin Rothrock. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

The Russian Presidential Affairs Department’s Scientific Research Computing Center (GRCC) develops systems to monitor and deanonymize social-media users, and it sells these systems to government and private clients alike. Using the company’s services, insurance companies can root out dishonest employees, and security-guard companies can recruit new staff. Other GRCC programs allow the police to hunt down “extremists” online. In a special report published in late September, Meduza learned that these computing systems collect information on Russians not just from open sources, but also from leaked databases that are sold illegally on the black market. To find out more about Russia’s database black market and how this information is being used, “The Naked Pravda” spoke to Meduza special correspondent Liliya Yapparova and Christo Grozev and Aric Toler, two top researchers at the investigative journalism website Bellingcat. In this episode: (2:01) Liliya Yapparova explains how she first learned about GRCC and its controversial products. (5:46) Kevin and Liliya discuss the ethics of using illegal databases to hunt down criminals, and the tradeoffs tech consumers accept when embracing news services. (9:15) Christo Grozev reviews Bellingcat’s history and how he came to the group. (11:39) Aric Toler describes “digital stalking” and talks about Bellingcat’s mid-October report about one of the alleged Skripal poisoners attending the family wedding of a Russian military intelligence commander. (21:31) Aric explains why Bellingcat isn’t like Wikileaks. (23:56) Christo talks about when Bellingcat thinks it’s okay to use leaked databases. (30:29) Liliya and Christo argue that Russia’s data-leak problem can’t be fixed anytime soon. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

In life and in news reporting, violence against women is a sadly “evergreen” topic, but the issue has taken on new and growing momentum in Russia, where there’s a rising number of high-profile cases involving rape and self-defense. Meduza has reported extensively on these investigations, and, in this first episode of “The Naked Pravda,” managing editor Kevin Rothrock speaks to a handful of activists and journalists who are working to shed more light on these cases and the social movement that hopes to transform how Russia handles women’s safety. In this episode: (1:20) In mid-October, after weeks of hesitation, a journalist in Veliky Novgorod publicly accused a colleague from another local news outlet of raping her. (Read Meduza’s report here.) Why was she reluctant to speak openly about the assault? (5:22) Marina Pisklakova-Parker, the founder and chair of the board of the women’s rights group “Center ANNA,” recalls how women’s rights advocacy in Russia has evolved since the 1990s, and discusses the impact of being designated as a “foreign agent” by the Justice Ministry. (8:18) Hilah Kohen, Meduza’s English-language news editor, argues that ethical storytelling in cases of sexual violence focuses on survivors and frames allegations in a broader social context. (14:40) Elena Kalinina, a managing partner at the advertising agency “Room485,” explains how her team created an interactive game designed to raise awareness about domestic violence and abusive partners. (17:45) Anna Romashchenko, region coordinator for the advocacy group “Nasiliu.net” (No to Violence), talks about creating safe spaces for women in Russia and the unexpected demographics of views about women’s rights. (20:18) Ola Cichowlas, AFP’s Moscow correspondent, recounts her story about a woman in Moscow who was prosecuted for defending herself against an abusive partner. (23:26) Nastya Krasilnikova, who writes on Telegram about representations of women in the Russian media, argues that many news outlets actively “hate women,” but there is more willingness now than before to talk about sexual assault. If you or someone you know is in an unsafe relationship, there are resources available, like the National Domestic Violence Hotline in the U.S. and the National Domestic Violence Helpline in the UK. In Russia, you can contact Nasiliu.net, Center ANNA, and other groups. “The Naked Pravda” comes out on Fridays. Catch every new episode by subscribing at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms. If you have a question or comment about the show, please write to Kevin Rothrock at [email protected] with the subject line: “The Naked Pravda.”Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

“The Naked Pravda” highlights how Meduza’s top reporting intersects with the wider research and expertise that exists about Russia. Future episodes will look at the following issues: 💾 Leaked databases and how the black market for this information has become a key aspect of Russian law enforcement and investigative journalism in Russia🗑️ Russian tabloid journalism and its reverberations in the Western news media⚔️ Kremlin clan politics and the power of the presidential administration. ✊ The show’s first episode, which debuts on Friday, November 29, will address a sexual-assault case in Veliky Novgorod and the state of women’s rights and safety in Russia today. Americans, queue it up for that Thanksgiving drive home. 🎧 Subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts and other platforms.Как поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно