The Power Vertical Podcast by Brian Whitmore

Independent media outlets and civic groups are shutting down after being designated "foreign agents" or "undesirable organizations." Russia's media regulator, Roskomnadzor, has blocked 49 websites linked to Aleksei Navalny as the imprisoned opposition leader's associates are arrested or flee the country. And the FSB has published a list of 61 topics that Russians are forbidden to discuss, lest they be designated as foreign agents. Vladimir Putin's regime is dialing the repression up to eleven. On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore discusses what it all means and where it may be going with Maria Snegovaya.

Vladimir Putin is obsessed with Ukraine. Back in 2008, he famously told then US President George W. Bush that it was not even a real country. In a press conference following his summit with current US President Joe Biden, Putin became visibly animated - indeed almost unhinged - when talking about Ukraine. And this week, Putin published an essay on the "historical unity" of Russia and Ukraine in which he argued - among other things - that present day Ukraine is an artificial construct of the Soviet era and that Ukrainian sovereignty is only possible in partnership with Russia. On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore speaks with James Sherr and Konstantin Eggert about what Putin's obsession with delegitimizing Ukraine's statehood tells us about his state of mind and Russian policy toward Ukraine and beyond.

Battleships, warplanes, brinkmanship, and geopolitics on the high seas. What actually happened when Britain's HMS Defender sailed from the Ukrainian port of Odessa to the Georgian port of Batumi? How did what appears to have been a routine mission to assert navigation rights in the Black Sea escalate into a military and diplomatic incident between Russia and the West? With Russia and NATO conducting dueling naval exercises in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Seas tensions are rising. On this week’s Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore speaks to military analyst Michael Kofman of the CNA Corporation about what it all means. Enjoy…

The debate over Russia policy in the West is, unfortunately, not always grounded in reality. All too often, it is instead based on myths and misconceptions that have been spread by disinformation campaigns and perpetuated by whataboutism. As a result, Western policy toward Russia is often driven by wishful thinking on the part of many well-meaning politicians and policymakers. On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore speaks with James Nixey and Keir Giles of Chatham House, two of the authors of an important new report: "Myths and misconceptions in the debate on Russia, how they affect policy, and what can be done." Enjoy...

Western sanctions against Belarus finally appear to be targeting Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s enablers in Russia. When the United States, the European Union, Canada, and the United Kingdom announced a new round of sanctions against the Minsk regime this week, one name in particular stood out: Russian businessman Mikhail Gutseriyev, the largest single foreign investor in Belarus who was included on the EU’s list of sanctioned individuals. Given the expanding Russian economic footprint in Belarus and the close ties between the two countries, many are arguing that the West cannot just sanction Belarus alone - it needs to sanction the Putin-Lukashenka axis of autocrats and kleptocrats. The Europeans took a big step in that direction. On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore talks to Ilya Zaslavskiy of the Free Russia Foundation and Paul Massaro of the U.S. Helsinki Commission about what happens next and what should happen next. Enjoy...

It had the vibe of a Cold War-era summit and it came at the lowest point in U.S.-Russian relations in decades. When U.S. President Joe Biden met Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in Geneva, Russia's cyberattacks, election interference, human rights abuses, and aggression against its neighbors were all on the agenda. Both leaders laid down their so-called red lines and Putin predictably played his usual game of whataboutism. On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore discusses the summit and its aftermath with former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Kramer and Deutsche Welle columnist Konstantin Eggert. Enjoy...

There won't be any reset buttons. There won't be any grand bargains. And U.S. President Joe Biden probably won't be looking into Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin's eyes and getting a sense of his soul. But the stakes will nevertheless be high when the U.S. and Russian presidents meet in Geneva next week. On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore speaks to Jonathan Katz, a senior fellow and director of democracy initiatives at the German Marshall Fund, about what we can expect to happen when Biden meets Putin.

Serious questions remain about whether the authoritarian regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka acted alone in hijacking Ryanair Flight 4978 and kidnapping Belarusian dissident journalist Raman Pratasevich and his Russian girlfriend Sofia Sapega. Did Lukashenka get a stealthy assist from Vladimir Putin's Russia in commandeering a commercial airliner travelling between two European Union countries? Was the Putin-Lukashenka axis of autocrats acting in concert in this brazen act of air piracy? And if so, what are the implications for Western policy?

It was always going to be a difficult needle to thread. The Biden administration clearly views Russia's Nord Stream-2 natural gas pipeline as a geopolitical project that threatens European energy security and that of Ukraine and eastern flank NATO allies like Poland and the Baltic states. But in Germany, the main destination of the pipeline, the project has powerful supporters, investors, and stakeholders. Which makes imposing sanctions, to say the least, difficult. So now, the United States is trying to thread that needle - punishing an adversary without also hitting a close ally. On this week’s Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore discusses the geopolitics of Nord Stream 2 with Josh Rudolph and Kristine Berzina of the German Marshal Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy and Paul Massaro, a policy advisor at the U.S. Helsinki Commission. Enjoy…

Should the United States and its allies consider broadening its approach to sanctions against Alyaksandr Lukashenka's authoritarian regime in Belarus to include its Russian enablers in Vladimir Putin's Kremlin? Should the West instead look at imposing sanctions on the Putin-Lukashenka Axis of Autocrats? On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore speaks to David Kramer, who served as Assistant Secretary of State in the administration of President George W. Bush about the West's options in Belarus as well as recent developments in Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. Enjoy...

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Konstantin Eggert joins host Brian Whitmore to discuss the growing intensification of Vladimir Putin's regime's war on Russia's opposition.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Ilya Zaslavskiy and Josh Rudolph join host Brian Whitmore to discuss how to sanction a problem like Russia and look at the latest round of sanctions levied against Russia by the Biden administration.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Jamie Fly and Kiryl Sukhotksi join host Brian Whitmore to discuss the Kremlin’s campaign against the U.S. broadcaster, what this tells us about the state of Russia's domestic politics, and the escalating conflict between Moscow and the West.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Maria Snegovaya and Vladimir Milov join host Brian Whitmore to talk about Vladimir Putin's autocratic regime tightening the screws and turning up the pressure on the opposition.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Michael Kofman joins host Brian Whitmore to discuss Russia's recent troop buildup near the Ukrainian border and what Vladimir Putin's regime might be up to.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Terrell Jermaine Starr joins host Brian Whitmore to discuss his take on Navalny's civic activism and Navalny's nationalist and xenophobic past. He'll also talk about his forthcoming memoir about his time in the former Soviet Union.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Michael Kofman joins host Brian Whitmore to discuss how Russia is modernizing its military infrastructure and expanding its force structure in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad - which borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania and what it means.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Eto Buziashvili and Shota Gvineria join host Brian Whitmore to unpack the crisis in Georgia and what it means.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Maria Snegovaya and Vladimir Ashurkov join host Brian Whitmore to talk about if Navalny's power horizontal can continue to challenge Vladimir Putin's power vertical and the effectiveness of Western sanctions against Putin's regime.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Vladimir Kara-Murza join host Brian Whitmore to talk about his story surviving not just one, but two assassination attempts by Vladimir Putin's death squads.

In this episode of The Power Vertical Podcast, Ilya Zaslavskiy and Casey Michel join host Brian Whitmore to talk about the whispering campaigns online about Alexei Navalny and Vladimir Putin's authoritarian regime's ability to manipulate Western institutions.

In this edition of The Power Vertical Podcast, Paul Massaro, policy advisor to the Helsinki Commission, and Josh Rudolph, fellow for Malign Finance at Alliance for Securing Democracy, join host Brian Whitmore to discuss how the United States and its allies can forge a grand strategy to combat the malign influence of Russian kleptocracy.

In this episode of The Power Vertical Podcast, Konstantin Eggert and Ilya Zaslavskiy join host Brian Whitmore to talk about the sentencing of Alexei Navalny and the consequences of his influence for years to come.

In this episode of The Power Vertical Podcast, Maria Snegovaya, nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council, and Franak Viačorka, Belarusian journalist and advisor to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, comment on the solidarity among protestors in Russia and Belarus as each nation battles government corruption and political oppression.

In this episode of The Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore is joined by Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Zaslavskiy of Free Russia Foundation to discuss Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's arrest in Moscow and his anti-corruption campaign that revealed Vladimir Putin's opulent palace on the Black Sea coast.

In this episode of The Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore is joined by Maria Snegovaya, nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center, and Konstantin Eggert, columnist on Russian Affairs for Deutsche Welle, to discuss Alexei Navalny's decision to return to Russia just five months after surviving an assassination attempt by the Kremlin.

In this episode of The Power Vertical Podcast, John Sipher, 28-year CIA veteran, and David Venable, a former intelligence officer for the U.S. National Security Agency, join host Brian Whitmore to discuss the aftermath of Russia’s SolarWinds hack.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk and Deputy Director of the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center Melinda Haring join host Brian Whitmore to discuss Ukraine's struggle to tame its oligarchs and fully establish the rule of law.

In this episode of The Power Vertical Podcast, Michael Carpenter, managing director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement and former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under the Obama administration, joins host Brian Whitmore to discuss the future of U.S.-Russia relations.

John Sipher, a 28-year veteran of the CIA's National Clandestine Service and Clint Watts, former FBI special agent, join host Brian Whitmore to discuss tactics of the Kremlin's political war on truth, facts, and Western institutions.

In this episode of The Power Vertical Podcast host Brian Whitmore discusses the weird rumors of Putin's ill health, the State Duma's vote to grant former presidents immunity and seats in the Federation Council, and the Kremlin's erratic decision-making with guests Ilya Ponomarev and Ilya Zaslavskiy.

Authoritarian regimes such as Russia and China have spent more than $300 million interfering in democratic processes over the past decade. In this episode Josh Rudolph, Fellow for Malign Finance at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, takes us behind the scenes of these covert financial attacks and sheds light on the Kremlin's influence all over the world.

For two decades, Vladimir Putin has been the master of the Russian universe. But 2020 may go down as the year when he lost his mojo. In this episode of The Power Vertical Podcast, special guest Mark Galeotti joins host Brian Whitmore to discuss the major themes of his book, We Need to Talk About Putin.

Brian Whitmore of The Power Vertical speaks to BBC 5 Live's Stephen Nolan about the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

In the wake of Alexei Navalny's poisoning, Brian Whitmore joins BBC 5 Live's Dotun Adebayo to discuss the Kremlin's long history of attempted and successful assassinations.