The Power Vertical Podcast by Brian Whitmore

As Ukraine launches a fresh offensive to retake Russian-occupied lands in the south, another struggle is taking shape that will likely be as consequential as what happens on the battlefield. And that is the energy war.

August 2022 may go down in history as the month Ukraine took the war to Russia and challenged Moscow's dominance over the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula.

Ukrainian special forces and guerilla units strike deep inside Russian-occupied Crimea, hitting two airfields and a munitions depot, challenging Moscow's control of the peninsula.

Three decades ago, U.S. President George H.W. Bush marked the end of the Cold War in his 1992 State of the Union address. It was a heady moment when anything and everything seemed possible. But it would not last.

From torture to the summary executions of civilians to the widespread abduction and forced deportation of noncombatants, the anecdotal evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine has been mounting for months. Both the International Criminal Court and the Ukrainian authorities have launched formal investigations for crimes against humanity and potentially genocide. But as was the case with the downing of flight MH17 eight years ago, a lot of shoe-leather forensic work into these crimes is also being conducted by teams of investigative journalists. On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Peter Pomerantsev, a Senior Fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University and author of the books Nothing is True and Everything is Possible and This Is Not Propaganda, who is part of a journalistic initiative called The Reckoning Project that is documenting Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

The HIMARS are changing the game on the battlefield. The High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and other longer-range weapons supplied by the West are enabling the Ukrainians to hit high-value Russian targets, reduce their own casualties, and mount a counter offensive in the East and South.

On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Michael Sawikiw, Executive Vice President and Director of the Ukrainian National Information Service, Vice President of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, and President of the US Holodomor Committee; and Marta Dyczok, an Associate Professor of History and Political Science at the University of Western Ontario and CERES Fellow at the University of Toronto.

NATO's most vulnerable members are also its most hawkish because they understand that should Russia succeed in subjugating Ukraine, then history suggests they could be next. On the Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with veteran journalist and Kremlin-watcher Michael Weiss about how the war in Ukraine looks from the alliance's front line. Sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com

Just over a century ago, in the aftermath of World War I, almost all of Europe's empires began the process of disintegration and decolonization. The Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and British empires all declined and fell in the first half of the 20th Century.

The Wider War: Russia's Assault on Ukraine -- and the West by The Charles T. McDowell Center for Global Studies and Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center

The battle for the Donbas rages in Ukraine's east with Russian forces on the verge of capturing the strategically vital city of Sievierodonetsk. And with Ukrainian cities facing a merciless onslaught of Russian artillery and missile attacks, Kyiv calls on the West to send more long-range weapons to push back the offensive.

As Ukraine fights for its sovereignty and independence, cracks are appearing in the Western coalition against Vladimir Putin. French President Emmanuel Macron has warned against "humiliating Russia," Italy has floated a peace plan that would have Ukraine cede territory in exchange for peace, and talks are continuing in Turkey, without Kyiv's participation, to ease the grain crisis that Russia created by blockading Ukraine's ports.

When Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, it managed to convince much of the world that Georgia had started the war - an absurd proposition given that Georgian troops never left Georgian territory. When Russia annexed Crimea and invaded the Donbas in 2014, it persuaded much of the world to pretend that it was some sort of "civil war" among Ukrainians and that Moscow was not involved despite massive evidence to the contrary. But with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine this year, very few are believing Vladimir Putin's hype. Few believe the fairy tales of Ukrainian Nazis and chemical weapons. And most understand that this is nothing but an unprovoked war of choice on Putin's part. Russia's once-feared disinformation machine suddenly looks pathetic. So what happened? And why? On the Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with veteran journalist Michael Weiss, news director at the New Lines magazine, contributing editor at The Daily Beast, and director of special investigations at the Free Russia Foundation, about Russia's flailing propaganda effort and the latest developments on the ground.

If Vladimir Putin's goal in invading Ukraine was to push NATO and the EU out of Eastern Europe, he has failed miserably. Because suddenly, Finland and Sweden have applied to join NATO, a prospect highly unlikely just months ago. Suddenly, the prospect of Ukraine joining the EU, unthinkable just months ago, is now a very real possibility. And suddenly, we are entering into a whole new era of European security. What will it look like? On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with former US State Department official Max Bergmann, director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies about European security in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

Does declaring victory make you a victor? As both Russia and Ukraine say they've won the war, it's far from the only question on people's minds, but an important distinction, nonetheless. Listen to this week's episode as we tackle these lines of questions.

Listen to how Brian Whitmore and Jeff Mankoff argue that imperialism is tied to culture and that Russia may not see the changes you'd expect in a world after Putin.

On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore, speaks with former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who was in office at the time of the 2007 attacks, about how they unfolded and what they portended.

Genocide. The word has been thrown out by US President Biden when describing the horrors committed in Ukraine. But is there a legal case to back up the claim?

Week 8 of the Russian war on Ukraine. Is it too early to call this genocide?

Scenes of mass graves and civilians shot execution style in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, are imprinted into the World's mind, and it may never be the same again.

On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore unpacks the latest developments on the ground with retired U.S. Admiral James Foggo.

As Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine enters its second month, civilian casualties mount and so does evidence of Russian war crimes. Here are the latest developments.

As the war enters its fourth week Russia's advance on major Ukrainian cities is still bogged down and stymied by a fierce Ukrainian resistance. So we're effectively in a race against time. Can Ukraine hold out long enough for Russia's economy to crumble and undermine its ability to wage war?

The debate continues about how to arm Ukraine with the weapons it needs to defend itself, most importantly fighter jets to prevent Russia from dominating the skies. On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with three Ukrainian experts about the war and the situation on the ground.

Vladimir Putin launches the largest land invasion in Europe since World War II and escalates the bombing of civilian targets. Led by its charismatic President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine mounts a David-and-Goliath-style resistance that inspires the world. A surprisingly unified West imposes the most devastating sanctions package in history, isolating Russia and effectively cutting it off from the global economy. And across the globe, many are asking: Has Putin become unhinged? And what does that mean going forward? On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Georgetown University Professor and former U.S. State Department official Angela Stent, author of the book Putin's World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest, about the latest developments.

On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, I speak with former Assistant Secretary of State David Kramer about the Russian advances, the Ukrainian resistance, and the new geopolitical reality we are entering.

Moscow sends mixed signals, claiming to pull some troops back from the Ukrainian border and indicating an openness to additional diplomacy while at the same time taking steps to recognize the independence of Russian-occupied areas of the Donbas.

On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore speaks with former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Daniel Fata and Deutsche Welle columnist Konstantin Eggert about Putin's landmark Munich speech 15 years ago and what it means in retrospect.

As more than 100,000 Russian troops continue to encircle Ukraine and as Moscow begins shipping supplies of blood and plasma to the front, war fears are very much in the air. But what is the perspective from Ukraine?

The prospect of a major land war in Europe, perhaps the largest conflict since World War II, appears more likely than ever. But as Vladimir Putin continues his brinkmanship, how much popular and elite support does he really have to start a war?

On the Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with defense analyst Michael Kofman of the CNA Corporation about what a Russian re-invasion of Ukraine might look like and what happens next.

On the Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Merhat Sharipzhan, a Senior Correspondent at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the former director of RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, and veteran journalist and author Casey Michel about the civil unrest in Kazakhstan and the opportunities it presents to Russian expansion.

On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore speaks with former Estonian President Toomas Ilves and former Assistant Secretary of State David Kramer about how far Putin may go and what a divided and distracted West can do to stop him.

From money laundering to stealth investment through opaque shell companies, strategic corruption is one of the main vectors of Russian malign influence abroad. It erodes democratic institutions, weakens Western resolve and unity, and enhances Moscow's efforts to dominate its neighbors. It also enables and strengthens Vladimir Putin's autocratic regime at home. The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has elevated combating corruption as a national security priority. Is it enough? And what more needs to be done? On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks to Paul Massaro, a policy advisor at the U.S. Helsinki Commission, and Russian opposition figure Vladimir Milov.

With Russia massing tens of thousands of troops on the Ukrainian border, the threat of an invasion appears increasingly real. In a video call this week with Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Joe Biden reiterated Washington's support for Ukraine, rebuffed Putin's demands that NATO membership be taken off the table, and threatened severe economic sanctions -- and possibly other measures -- if Russia invades. Ukraine has been living with a low-intensity war in the Donbas for eight years. But what may be coming is something qualitatively different. How does the crisis look from inside Ukraine? And how prepared are the Ukrainian armed forces to resist a full-scale Russian invasion? On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks to former Ukrainian Defense Minister Andriy Zagorodniuk, director of the Center for Defense Strategies, and Volodymyr Dubovyk, an associate professor in the Faculty of International Relations at Mechnikov National University in Odessa and director of its Center for International Studies. Enjoy…

As Russia continues to mount tens of thousands of troops on the Ukrainian border, Vladimir Putin says he is seeking a binding commitment from the United States that Ukraine will never become a NATO member. Sounds a lot like blackmail to be sure. And it is also a nonstarter. And if trouble on one front wasn't enough, Alyaksandr Lukashenka announced this week that Belarus would not stand aside in a conflict between Russia and Ukraine. And to drive the point home, the Belarusian Defense Ministry announced that it would be holding joint military exercises with Russia on its border with Ukraine. With U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinkin in Europe to meet with NATO and OSCE foreign ministers, Russia is escalating its brinkmanship in Ukraine. And Ukraine is now facing threats on two fronts. On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore speaks to military analyst Michael Kofman of the CNA Corporation about what happens next.

It's all got a feeling of deja vu. Russia is again massing troops and moving ballistic missile systems near Ukraine's border and is accusing Kyiv of violating the terms of a ceasefire agreement in the Donbas region. In a bellicose speech last week, Vladimir Putin accused the United States and its NATO allies of "aggravating the situation by supplying Kyiv with modern lethal weapons," vowing that Moscow will "adequately" respond. And the Kremlin is claiming - without confirmation from Washington - that a second summit meeting between Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden is in the works. The summit would purportedly resolve a crisis entirely of Moscow's making. We went through all this before, when a menacing Russian troop buildup on Ukraine's border in April was followed by a Putin-Biden summit in June. So is Putin trying to repeat that trick? Or is something more menacing afoot? What is the goal of Putin's brinkmanship in Ukraine and how should the West respond? On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore discusses these issues with Konstantin Eggert, a columnist on Russian affairs with Deutsche Welle, and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Kramer. Also on the podcast, we discuss how Lithuania is preparing for the upcoming Summit of Democracies in Washington. Enjoy...

We now live in a world where a Belarusian dictator can hijack a European commercial aircraft, torture his political opponents, and orchestrate a migrant crisis on his neighbors' borders -- and suffer no meaningful consequences. We've long lived in a world where an autocratic Kremlin leader can get away with assassinating his opponents with nerve agents and radioactive isotopes in Europe, invading his neighbors, and annexing their territory. We're living in a world where cyberattacks are the norm - not the exception; where political assassinations are no longer shocking; and where it is a given that autocrats are going to meddle in democratic elections across the world. We now live in a world of impunity. We now live in a world where might makes right and the rules are increasingly optional. In many ways, we now live in Vladimir Putin's world. So how do we get out of it? On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Peter Pomerantsev - a Senior Fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University and author of the books Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: Inside the Surreal Heart of the New Russia and This Is Not Propaganda - about the causes and consequences of this age of impunity.

It has been described as a “gas station masquerading as a country,” as a nation that has "nuclear weapons...oil wells and nothing else,” and as a mere “regional power.” Despite the fact that Vladimir Putin's regime has pulled off the first territorial annexation in Europe since World War II, successfully intervened in Syria to save the regime of Bashar Al-Assad, and is rapidly militarizing Belarus on NATO's Eastern flank, the stubborn perception of Russia as a paper tiger persists. And with the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden focused on China -- and hoping to park the Russia problem -- it is a perception that has serious policy implications. The thing about Russia is that it is never as strong as it appears -- and it is never as weak as it appears. So how strong is Russia really? And how much policy attention should it be receiving? On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Michael Kofman and Andrea Kendall-Taylor, co-authors of an important article in Foreign Affairs titled "The Myth of Russian Decline" to get some answers.

The long struggle over the Russian-led Nord Stream 2 pipeline appears to be entering its endgame. Is this controversial and highly politicized energy project a done deal? Or can the pipeline, which many fear will lead to corruption, cronyism, and deeper European dependence on Russian energy, still be stopped? And if it can't, what can be done in the long term to mitigate the damage? On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Dr. Benjamin L. Schmitt, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University and former European Energy Security Advisor at the U.S. State Department.

The recently published Pandora Papers has exposed how politicians and public officials use offshore tax havens to hide their wealth and evade taxes. It's not just a moral dilemma. It's a security threat largely of the West's own making that allows autocratic leaders like Vladimir Putin to establish vectors of malign influence. On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, I speak with Paul Massaro of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, Josh Rudolph of the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy, and journalist Casey Michel, author of American Kleptocracy, about the steps being taken in the United States to oppose strategic corruption.

Vladimir Putin's Kremlin is militarizing Belarus and turning Alyaksandr Lukashenka's autocratic regime into a force multiplier in his ongoing war against the West. Russia's arms buildup in the Western exclave of Kaliningrad continues apace and -- together with the militarization of Belarus -- threatens the security of NATO allies in the Baltic states and Poland. But with the focus of the United States largely on a rising and increasingly bellicose China -- and with Russia being dismissed by many as a declining regional power -- fears are mounting that the European front is not getting the attention it demands. Can the West manage this new Cold War on two fronts? On this week’s Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore speaks to former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Kramer and Jonathan Katz, director of democracy initiatives at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, to get answers.

All is not quiet on the Ukrainian front. Vladimir Putin's regime has stepped up efforts to give Russian passports to Ukrainians living in separatist-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine. Moscow is also reportedly planning to spend $12 billion in occupied separatist enclaves in Donetsk and Luhansk. And Russia's ally, Belarus, is moving military hardware to its border with Ukraine including possibly Russian-made S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems. Ukraine, meanwhile, has taken steps to curb the political influence of its oligarchs - potentially closing off a key vector of Russian malign influence. It's been one month since Zelensky got his coveted White House meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and secured additional defense assistance. But how do things really look on the ground in a country that has been at war for its very existence for more than seven years? On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore speaks to Volodymyr Dubovyk, an associate professor in the Faculty of International Relations at Mechnikov National University in Odessa and director of its Center for International Studies.

A rigged vote secures a super-majority for the ruling United Russia party setting the stage for the next phase of the ongoing political drama in Moscow. Last week's so-called election to the State Duma was a dress rehearsal for Vladimir Putin's next political project - securing his continued rule until 2036. And this project is unfolding amid the backdrop of mounting discontent with the status quo in society and an escalating crackdown on dissent from the Kremlin. Putin has already ruled longer than any Russian or Soviet leader since Josef Stalin - and he doesn't appear to be going anywhere soon. But he's lost the youth, he's lost the cities, he's lost the urban professional class, and he's losing the working class. So what happens now? On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore speaks with scholar, political analyst, and journalist Vasily Gatov, a visiting fellow, University of Southern California's Annenberg Center of Communication Leadership and Policy. Enjoy...

The atmosphere in the runup to Russia's so-called elections this weekend is so restrictive that for the first time since the breakup of the Soviet Union, the OSCE has decided not to send observers. The main independent Russian election observer has been declared a foreign agent. Opposition candidates, many facing arrest and imprisonment, are fleeing the country. Websites are being blocked and Western tech companies like Google and Apple are being pressured to remove political content and apps the Kremlin doesn't like. When it comes to Russia’s upcoming State Duma elections, there is no doubt that the fix is in - the Kremlin has the tools and the will to manufacture the result it wants. But Russian elections are less about the results, which are largely preordained, and more about the ritual and the theater. And what is not clear is whether Vladimir Putin's regime will be able to control the election's narrative. On the Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Konstantin Eggert about what to expect.

A coordinated and comprehensive attack targeting virtually all segments of Russia’s civil society, including journalists, lawyers, activists and opposition politicians. An equally coordinated and comprehensive campaign to encourage prominent opposition figures to go into exile. A deeply unpopular ruling party with sinking poll numbers with elections just a week away. And an uprising in a neighboring country that has spooked the Kremlin elite. Vladimir Putin's autocratic regime is cracking down on dissent again. But this time, it feels a bit different - and a lot more sinister. On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks to Russian opposition figure Vladimir Milov and scholar Maria Snegovaya about how and why the repression is different this time.

They've been called a pretext for mischief against the Baltics and Poland and a means for Russia to increase its military footprint in Belarus. They've been called Kremlin saber-rattling, a message to the West, and a very expensive and noisy psyop. And they've been called routine military exercises that are nothing more than business as usual. But whatever you call them, the joint Russian-Belarusian Zapad-2021 military exercises that will begin next week seem to have everybody's attention. So what should we expect from Zapad-2021? On this week's Power Vertical Podcast host Brian Whitmore speaks with military analyst Michael Kofman, director of the Russian Studies Program at the CNA corporation to find out. Enjoy...

Three decades ago, a new European state representing an old European nation appeared on the scene. Thirty years ago in the rubble of the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian people finally achieved their dream of independence, sovereignty, and statehood. And a generation after achieving this goal, today Ukrainians are still fighting to maintain it. The modern Ukrainian state turned 30 this week. This week’s Power Vertical Podcast looks back at its progress and ahead to its prospects as host Brian Whitmore speaks with Ambassador John Herbst, historian Marta Dyczok, and journalist Nataliya Gumenyuk.

A rigged election is followed by unprecedented street protests as a civil society comes of age. A brutal crackdown on dissent by an increasingly desperate dictator. A brazen act of air piracy and kidnapping. Allegations of death squads. And successive waves of Western sanctions. From August 2020 to August 2021 everything changed in Belarus as Alyaksandr Lukashenka faced the most serious crisis of his nearly three decades in power. And with Vladimir Putin's Russia waiting in the wings to exploit upheaval, it's a crisis with major geopolitical consequences. On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, we take a look back at Belarus' year of living dangerously -- and take a look ahead at what comes next. Joining host Brian Whitmore is former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Kramer and veteran Belarusian journalist Franak Viacorka, an advisor to opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

From strategic corruption to disinformation to support for extremist political movements, Vladimir Putin 's Kremlin has deployed many weapons in its ongoing war on Western democracy. This week's Power Vertical Podcast previews a soon-to-be-released report from the Free Russia Foundation looking at one front in that war - the United States. Host Brian Whitmore speaks to veteran journalist Casey Michel, one of the authors of the report "The Kremlin's Malign Influence Inside the United States." Enjoy..