PONARS Eurasia Podcast

In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman speaks with Russian China experts Vita Spivak and Alexander Gabuev about the February meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and what it may tell us about where the Russian-Chinese relationship is headed.

In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with scholars Kelly Smith and Benjamin Nathans about the history, achievements, and impending shutdown of the Memorial Society, Russia's oldest and most venerable civic organization, and what its imminent liquidation portends for the Russian civil society.

In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with social scientist Andrey Shcherbak about the quality of the data collected in the recent population census and the goals of Vladimir Putin's government's nationalities policy

In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Alexander Verkhovsky about the Kremlin's ever expanding toolkit against political and civic activists, journalists, and other dissidents.

In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Tanya Lokot and Nikolay Petrov about the results of Russia’s legislative elections and about what comes next.

In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Ben Noble and Nikolay Petrov about Russia’s September 17-19 legislative elections, repressive measures against electoral challengers, and whether to expect anything other than preordained results.

In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast episode, Maria Lipman chats with Denis Volkov, Naira Davlashyan, and Peter Slevin about why COVID-19 vaccination rates are still so low across the globe, comparing vaccine hesitant constituencies across Russia, France, and the United States.  

  In a new PONARS Eurasia Podcast episode, Maria Lipman chats with Maxim Trudolyubov about the current tightening of the Russian political sphere, asking whether or not it’s helpful to draw comparisons to the late Soviet period.

In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Grigory Golosov and Henry Hale about the evolution of Russia's political regime, and what to expect in the lead-up to September's Duma elections.

In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Sergiy Kudelia and Georgiy Kasianov about Ukrainian President Zelensky's second year in office, and how he has handled the political turbulence of the past year.

In today's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Olga Malinova about the myth of the "wild nineties" and the political actors involved in its construction.

In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Alexander Gorbachev about the dynamic music scene in contemporary Russia, and how free Russian musicians are to make political statements.

In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Anton Tabakh about rising food prices in Russia, and what they might mean for Russia's current and future stability.

In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Felix Light and Nikolay Petrov about the contemporary Communist Party of the Russian Federation, including the divisions between its leadership and membership, its attitude toward Alexei Navalny, and why it might be more than just "systemic" opposition after all.

In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Andrei Soldatov and Tanya Lokot about the role of the internet in contemporary Russian politics, including both as a tool of the Russian opposition and as an instrument of the increasingly repressive Russian regime.

In the first PONARS Eurasia Podcast of 2021, Maria Lipman chats with Greg Yudin about the current protests taking place in Russia, and what Alexei Navalny's growing popular support means for the Putin regime.

In 2020’s final episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Sarah Wilson Sokhey and Ella Paneyakh to discuss Russian social policy in the COVID-19 era, and public perception of Russia’s overall pandemic response.

In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Julia Yuzbasheva and Maria Danilova to learn more about the proliferation of "conscious parenting" practices in contemporary Russian society.

In this episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Masha Lipman chats with Grigory Ioffe about the long-term and short-term factors that led up to the current protests in Belarus, and the ongoing transformation of Belarussian society.

In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Ben Noble and Nikolay Petrov about ongoing changes to Russia’s national legislation based on the recently revised constitutional framework, and what these changes portend for the 2021 Duma election.

In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Graeme Robertson and Konstantin Gaaze about Russia’s September 13 regional elections and whether or not the Kremlin should be worried about upcoming Duma elections.

In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Natalya Chernyshova (University of Winchester) and Nikolay Petrov (Chatham House) about the ongoing protests in Belarus, and what they mean for the future of the current regime.

In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Denis Volkov (Levada Center) to learn more about public perceptions around current events in Khabarovsk, the "reset" of Putin's term limits, and the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the transcript here.

In this PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Nikolay Petrov (Chatham House) and Ivan Kurilla (European University at Saint Petersburg) to learn more about current events unfolding in Russia’s regions, focusing in particular on the cities of Khabarovsk and Saint Petersburg. Full transcript here

In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Maria Repnikova (Georgia State University) and Maxim Trudolubov (Meduza) to learn more about the state of news media in Russia and China today. Read the transcript here.

In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Aleksey Miller (European University, Saint Petersburg) to learn more about historical memory in Russia, and ongoing conflict over the memory of World War II in particular.

In early spring, the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly upset Putin's plans to stage several events designed to reinforce his legitimacy. Quarantine measures imposed by local officials helped to stem the spread of the virus, but the consequences of those measures included serious economic fallout and discontent. Now, many of these measures have been abruptly lifted, and the country is preparing to proceed with a large military parade as well as a major constitutional vote despite risks that these events might pose. How are Russians reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic and the government's performance in response to it? In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Samuel Greene and Ella Paneyakh to learn more about public perception regarding the COVID pandemic in Russia.

In April 2019, political novice Volodymyr Zelensky was elected the new President of Ukraine in a landslide victory. When Zelensky took over the presidency, he was faced by a host of immense challenges, including fighting corruption, reducing the clout of the oligarchs, and achieving a breakthrough in multilateral talks over the ongoing conflict in Donbass. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to an economic downturn and called for urgent and costly decisions, has only further aggravated Zelensky’s predicament. In this episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Sergiy Kudelia and Georgiy Kasianov about the first year of Zelensky’s presidency and his administration's response to the COVID pandemic.

The North Caucasus is a highly complicated territory in Russia, comprised of seven different ethnic republics with complex relationships to the Russian federal center. Throughout the region, the already immense challenges of dealing with the COVID pandemic have been amplified by chronic local problems within several of the region's republics. In this episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Ekaterina Sokirianskaia and Grigory Shvedov to learn more about the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the North Caucasus.

  How have different systems of government influenced responses to the COVID-19 pandemic? Why have some countries managed to effectively curb the spread of the Ccronavirus, while others continue to see rising numbers of infections and fatalities? What can we learn from exploring these comparisons, and how will social attitudes and state policies change moving forward? In this week's episode, Maria Lipman chats with Şener Aktürk to learn more about the comparative politics of the coronavirus pandemic.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, it would never have occurred to anyone to group Belarus together with Sweden. But today the wealthy Scandinavian country and the poor Eastern European one have something important in common: Neither has followed the rest of Europe into the lockdown.   Why has Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko chosen to act in full defiance of World Health Organization recommendations? How does the public view this defiance? What might be the implications for the upcoming Belarusian presidential elections? In this episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Grigory Ioffe to learn more.

In 2020, the Easter holidays coincided closely with the rise of the COVID epidemic in Russia. In March, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church finally complied with government authorities, who urged closing the church to parishioners - but numerous bishops and priests ignored the Patriarch’s call. Some even expressed open and vocal disobedience. How unusual is the current defiance of the patriarch’s admonition, and what may be its implications? In this episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Xenia Loutchenko to learn more about what the COVID pandemic means for the future of the Russian Orthodox Church.

As the COVID pandemic continues to spread, countries across the globe are facing formidable challenges. Despite major differences in their political and economic systems and policy making processes, Russia and the United States are currently undertaking similar protective measures in order to combat the spread of the virus – but opinions regarding these measures are divided. Where are citizens in these two countries getting their information about the virus? How do these populations feel about the protective measures being taken? What kind of political consequences might the pandemic have for leaders in both countries? In this week’s episode, Maria Lipman chats with James Bell of Pew Research Center and Denis Volkov of the Levada Center about public opinion regarding the pandemic in the United States and Russia to learn more.

In mid-January, Russia embarked on a major constitutional reform, introducing a series of constitutional amendments that were swiftly adopted by federal and regional parliaments. The most important amendment, which appeared at the last moment, proposed a "reset" of Putin's presidential term limit, thereby allowing him to run for the presidency again in 2024.Why did Putin need to revise the constitution, how long has the Kremlin been planning this move, and how has it been influenced by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic?In the first of a new series of PONARS Eurasia Podcasts, Masha Lipman chats with Ben Noble of University College London, Nikolai Petrov of Chatham House, and Henry Hale of George Washington University to learn more.

Ora John Reuter (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) discusses why Russians vote in elections and why the authorities even care if people vote.

Graeme Roberston (University of North Carolina) discusses his new book, Putin v. the People, co-authored with Samuel Greene (Kings College London), which provides insights into the role of personality and emotions in buttressing Putin's rule, possible post-Putin scenarios, and Russian politics more generally. (Also see their recent Point & Counterpoint article: "What Makes Putin Putin?")

Arturas Rozenas (NYU) discusses how Russian state-controlled media manipulates information to influence politics inside and outside Russia as well as the understudied components of Russian propaganda.

Igor Logvinenko (Wellesley College) discusses how Russia became so integrated with global financial markets and what U.S. policymakers should understand about how this "entanglement" affects sanctions policy on Russia.

    Listen to Andrey Makarychev (University of Tartu, Estonia) discuss the dynamics of the "post-Crimean" Russia-EU relationship and how they affect geopolitics in the Baltic Sea region.

    Lucan Ahmad Way (University of Toronto) discusses the spread of competitive authoritarianism in Eastern Europe, Russian interferences in democratic states, and the revolutionary orgins of Soviet durability.

Hannah Chapman (Miami University, Ohio) discusses the effectiveness of Russia's media strategies in its near abroad and how they relate to Moscow's broader geopolitical goals in the region.

Egor Lazarev (University of Toronto) discusses Ramzan Kadyrov's relationship with the Kremlin and why he promotes Sharia law in the Chechen Republic.

Alexei Trochev (Nazarbayev University) discusses his recently completed research project on judicial politics in Ukraine and his current research on criminal justice reform in Kazakhstan.

Kirill Rogov (Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy) discusses how President Vladimir Putin's fourth term will be affected by his declining approval ratings and economic stagnation.

Irina Busygina (Higher School of Economics) discusses how the Ukraine crisis affected Russia's role in the post-Soviet space and the future of the Eurasian Economic Union.

Jesse Driscoll (University of California San Diego) explains why he believes characterizing the fighting in Ukraine’s Donbas as “civil war” might help settle the conflict, ultimately in Ukraine’s favor

Brian Taylor (Syracuse University) discusses the likelihood of Putin achieving his domestic policy goals during his fourth term and the political obstacles that inhibit economic growth in Russia.

Judy Twigg (Virginia Commonwealth University) discusses the strategies the Russian government is pursuing to address the accelerating HIV/AIDS epidemic in Russia and why the situation should be of concern to the United States.

Dinissa Duvanova (Lehigh University) discusses "regulatory discretion and discretionary regulation" in former communist states based on her recent field research in Kazakhstan

Volodymyr Ishchenko (Kiev Polytechnic Institute) challenges the assumption that Ukraine since EuroMaidan has become a more cohesive and united civic nation and discusses why nationalistic trends are intensifying in Ukraine.