Expert Opinions: Russia, Eurasia - podcast cover

Expert Opinions: Russia, Eurasia

Harriman Institute at Columbia Universityharriman.columbia.edu
A podcast from the Harriman Institute at Columbia University and eurasianet.org. Masha Udensiva-Brenner interviews experts about political and cultural developments in Russia and Eurasia.

Episodes

Voices of Ukraine, Season 2, Episode 5: Immoral People

Ukrainian writer and journalist Nikita Grigorov was a university student studying Russian literature at Donetsk National University when Russia launched its war in Donbas in 2014. He supported an independent Ukraine and watched in disbelief as friends turned against him, sometimes violently. Then he fled to Kyiv with his father. Listen to his story.

May 24, 202316 min

Voices of Ukraine, Episode 8: In Conversation With The Kyiv Independent's Toma Istomina

The Kyiv Independent’s Deputy Chief Editor Toma Istomina talks with the site’s contributing editor Lili Bivings about being included on Forbes 30 under 30 in Europe list, leaving war-torn Ukraine to attend a conference in Norway, and what it’s like to cover a war unfolding in your own country. This episode contains explicit language.

May 19, 202220 min

Voices of Ukraine, Episode 4: Will this Be the Parting, Goodbye?

Peter Zalmayev grew up in Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine and immigrated to the United States, where he got citizenship. His parents stayed in Ukraine and, in 2014, after Russia invaded Donbas, he had to evacuate them from a war zone. Two years later, Peter moved back to Ukraine, settled in Kyiv, and launched a talk show. After Russia attacked the capital he evacuated his wife and two small children to Western Ukraine and traveled back toward Kyiv to report on the war.

Apr 21, 202217 min

Voices of Ukraine, Episode 3: Time Stops During War

After Russia invaded Ukraine, Antonina Berezovenko stayed in Kyiv in spite of the constant shelling. She is one of the few people left in her building, sheltering in the basement during air raids.

Apr 14, 202213 min

Voices of Ukraine Episode 2: The Fight for Independence

Mariya Chukhnova was born in Lutsk in Western Ukraine in the late 1980s. She participated in the Orange Revolution while she was in college. Then, like many Ukrainians of her generation, she ended up immigrating abroad and watching Ukraine’s transformation, and now the war, from afar.

Apr 07, 202218 min

Voices of Ukraine, Episode 1: No Comfort in a Safe Place

Serhii Tereshchenko, a Columbia University doctoral student, was working on his dissertation in Kyiv and planning to get married when Russia invaded Ukraine. On his scheduled wedding day, he evacuated to Lviv with his fiancée and her sister.

Mar 31, 202221 min

Introducing Voices of Ukraine

Introducing our new podcast, Voices of Ukraine. Hear stories of lives upended by Russia's war against Ukraine. Trailer written and produced by Masha Udensiva-Brenner and edited by Daniel Alarcón.

Mar 28, 20223 min

Episode 9: Transnational Repression

In the latest episode of Expert Opinions, a podcast from the Harriman Institute at Columbia University and Eurasianet, Masha Udensiva-Brenner interviews Freedom House researchers Nate Schenkkan and Isabel Linzer about their report on transnational repression. Photo by Photo by Angela Compagnone on Unsplash...

Jul 26, 202126 min

Episode 8: Researching Kleptocracy in Eurasia

In the latest episode of Expert Opinions - Russia, Eurasia, a podcast from the Harriman Institute at Columbia University and Eurasianet, Masha Udensiva-Brenner interviews anti-corruption investigator Thomas Mayne about kleptocracy and what it means for democracies all over the world.

Jun 04, 202128 min

Episode 7: Authoritarianism and Dissent in Post-Soviet States

In the latest episode of Expert Opinions - Russia, Eurasia, a podcast from the Harriman Institute at Columbia University, Masha Udensiva-Brenner interviews Alexis Lerner about her scholarship on authoritarianism and dissent in Russia, particularly in the context of imprisoned Russian opposition leader and political activist Alexei Navalny. They also discuss Lerner’s book project on graffiti in post-Soviet countries and how the Russian authorities use graffiti as a way to drown out public dissent...

May 11, 202117 min

Episode 6: Navalny, Transparency, and Political Repression in Russia

In the latest episode of Expert Opinions - Russia, Eurasia, a podcast from the Harriman Institute at Columbia University and Eurasianet.org, Masha Udensiva-Brenner interviews Matthew Murray about recently-imprisoned Russian opposition leader and political activist Alexei Navalny and his transparency efforts in Russia. Murray started doing business in St. Petersburg in 1991 and became involved in business ethics and anticorruption efforts there. He got to know Navalny personally in the mid aughts...

Mar 26, 202122 min

Episode 5: The Trump Organization in the Caucasus

Masha Udensiva-Brenner tells the story of New Yorker staff writer Adam Davidson's two investigations into Trump Organization deals in Baku, Azerbaijan and Batumi, Georgia. This episode is the third in a three-part series on offshore finance, money laundering, and Trump’s real estate deals in the post-Soviet region.

Mar 22, 201838 min

Episode 4: Examining Trump's Batumi Deal

The story behind, "Trump's Business of Corruption," Adam Davidson's New Yorker article about Trump's licensing deal in Batumi, Georgia. Guests: Columbia Journalism Investigative Fellows, Manuela Andreoni and Inti Pacheco. This is the second in a three-part series on offshore finance, money laundering, and Trump’s real estate deals in the post-Soviet region.

Dec 06, 201740 min

Episode 3: Looking at Luxury Real Estate's Money Laundering Role

Alexander Cooley, co-author of Dictators Without Borders: Power and Money in Central Asia, discusses how luxury real estate can enable money laundering. This is the first in a three-part series on offshore finance, money laundering, and Trump’s real estate deals in the post-Soviet region.

Oct 10, 201735 min

Episode 2: What's the Matter with Chechnya?

Guests: Rachel Denber, Deputy Director, Europe and Central Asia Division, Human Rights Watch; Thomas de Waal, Senior Fellow, Carnegie Europe All eyes turned to Chechnya in early April, after the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta exposed the kidnapping, unlawful detention, and torture of more than 100 gay men by the Chechen authorities. How did these purges start? What is missing from the prevailing media narrative? And how has Russia’s relationship with the republic affected what is go...

Jun 20, 201726 min

Episode 1: Russian Protests and Evolving US-Russia Relations

On March 2, 2017, Russian anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Navalny released a report and video accusing Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of massive corruption, and calling Russians to the streets on March 26. The Russian authorities, who remained silent about the accusations, did not issue permits for the protests, but tens of thousands of people took to the streets all over Russia anyway, leading to the largest protests the country has seen since 2012. Why did so many people turn out, why did so...

May 09, 201741 min