(***TIMESTAMPS in description below) ~ David Satter is a journalist, author, historian, and foreign policy expert –– who is widely regarded as one of the world’s preeminent experts on Vladimir Putin / Russia. In December 2013, after years of exclusive reporting on Putin’s crimes against humanity, David became the first Western Journalist ever banned from Russia (by their government) in the post-Cold War era.    From 1976 until his banishment in 2013, David spent the majority of his time living in the Soviet Union (which later became Russia) while working as the Moscow Correspondent for the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. He is perhaps best known as the first researcher who claimed that Vladimir Putin and Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) were behind the 1999 Russian Apartment Bombings, the 2002 Nord-Ost Siege, and the 2004 Beslan School Attack.

 

Over the past 2 decades, David has authored 5 books on Russia / The Soviet Union. Furthermore, he is also a Senior Fellow at both the Foreign Policy Research Institute & The Hudson Institute –– as well as a Visiting Scholar at Johns Hopkins.

***TIMESTAMPS***

0:00 - Intro; The story behind Putin’s government banning David from Russia in 2013; David’s backstory working as a Moscow correspondent; Recounting the fallout of post-Soviet Russia

16:19 - David was the first reporter to blow the whistle on Putin; the 1999 Russian Apartment Bombings; The Boris Yeltsin years in Russia; Chechnya Background and the First Chechen War; Putin’s rise to the Russian Presidency

36:04 - David breaks down the timeline and full details of the 1999 Russian Apartment Bombings; “Soldiers Guarding Sugar”; The Chechen Dagestan Invasion Inside Job; Putin’s popularity ratings post-bombing and 2000 Election; Does Putin look at himself as a Soviet?; David talks about his earliest suspicions on the bombing

59:13 - The brutal story behind the 2002 Nord-Ost Siege (Moscow Theater Hostage Crisis); The 2004 Beslan School Massacre; Putin to stay in power for life?

1:09:56 - What happened in Ukraine in 2014 (Maidan and Putin’s annexation of Crimea); Malaysia Airlines Flight 17; Did David see the Ukraine Invasion coming?; Russian Government Murders: Boris Nemtsov, Alexander Litvinenko (in London), Ana Politkovskaya; Bill Browder’s book, Red Notice

1:24:03 - Barack Obama’s Reset Policy with Russia; David recalls a meeting he and Boris Nemtsov had with the Obama administration; What the US strategy towards Putin should be; The Julian Assange CIA report from Yahoo; The murder of Ana Politkovskaya’s Chechen source

1:41:46 - David and Julian discuss the public comparisons between Putin and the most notorious leader of all time; Back to the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 aftermath; The Ukraine Invasion’s Effects on NATO; Many Russian people are victims of the regime

2:02:34 - Discussing the ominous calls in the media for a “No Fly Zone” in Ukraine (which could effectively cause WWIII); We need to find ways to get proper information to the Russian people

2:12:29 - David lays out the history of Propaganda in Russia; Analyzing the psychology of the Russian peopl...

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices