According to Vladimir Putin, he’s on a quest to de-Nazify Ukraine. But what about the Nazis in his own backyard? Hell, what about the Nazis all over Central and Eastern Europe.

Right now, the Azov Regiment in Ukraine is dominating the conversation. Pictures of the ultra nationalist group are circulating online and being used to justify Russia’s invasion. But they aren’t the only fascists in the area. Far from it. But it’s complicated and Azov is part of a broad tapestry of Fascist movements in the region, including in Russia.

Here to get into all this is Michael Colborne. Colborne is a journalist working at Bellingcat where he writes about extremist movements in Europe. He’s written a lot about Azov, but his latest is about the fascists in Russia. Male State: The Russian Online Hate Group Backing Putin’s War is at Bellingcat now.

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Russia is at war with Ukraine and Vladimir Putin is making vague nuclear threats. Both Russian and U.S. officials are, mostly, trying to dial things down. A Russian defense official said they don’t have their hands on the button and the Pentagon said it had canceled the test of a Minuteman missile. And yet … days later the U.S. head of Strategic Command said America needed to modernize its nuclear forces and reminded everyone that the test had been postponed and not canceled.

If all this is leaving you a bit anxious about the possibility of nuclear war, you’re not alone. To be clear, the possibility of nuclear war is still damn low … but that doesn’t always make the anxiety go away. Something that has always helped me deal with the threat of nuclear hellfire … is pop culture.

That’s what we’re gonna talk about today.

Here to help me with that is Jacqueline Bryk. Bryk is an analog Roleplaying Game personality, a nuclear policy dilettante, and a nuke wonk gadfly. She’s the writer of many fine games including the Ten Candles hack, Nuke: “A simple, stark game about slowly dying in a city hit by a nuclear weapon.”

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This episode was originally going to be called something like not everything is the Holocaust. We were going to talk about how the Nazi attempt to kill all of Europe’s Jews during World War II wasn’t much like being told to get a vaccine or wear a mask.

But events have overtaken us. Mask mandates are falling and the war in Ukraine is all I can think about nowadays - I don’t know about you.

When Vladimir Putin ordered his invasion, he claimed he was going to de-Nazify Ukraine’s government.

That was bullshit, but like a lot of bullshit, there’s a germ of truth.

Today we’re going to talk about what it means to de-Nazify a government with a Jew at it’s head and an ambivalent history.

Joining me today is Edna Friedberg, a historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, who hosts, among other things their Facebook live show.

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Returning guest and Russia expert Mark Galeotti comes on the show to give his perspective on the war in Ukraine.

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We talk about war a lot on this show. It’s kind of the foundation of what we do.

But the war in Ukraine is different. Frankly, it’s scarier. It makes everyone think of World War II and World War III at the same time.

So, let’s talk about it. Was there ever a chance to stop it, and what do we think will happen next?

With us today is James Miller. He’s a foreign policy analyst and journalist who has spent extensive time in Ukraine.

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Once upon a time, an enemy would pull up to your gates with his army and surround your city so that nothing could get in or out. In a short time, you’d be eating the horses, maybe the rats and, if things got bad enough and you weren’t entirely suicidal, you’d open the gates. Sometimes that would work out OK. Sometimes not.

Nowadays, countries wanting something from each other seem to have more options, but one that’s still around is the siege. We just call the sanctions. 

To discuss sanctions, their effectiveness and where they are currently applied by the United States, we are joined by Ambassador Daniel Fried. Fried spent a lifetime working at the state department, is an expert on sanctions, and is now at the Atlantic Council, a prominent Washington think tank. He’s got a new paper coming out on Nov. 17 with recommendations for the incoming administration.

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It’s been a concern lurking in the minds of America’s leaders for a long time: what if Russia and China could successfully work together against the United States?

A combined Russo-China empire is the stuff of science fiction, perhaps, but what’s the reality today? What goals do they share and how well can they work together? 

And how does that cooperation affect the potential war in Ukraine?

To help us understand this situation we have Andrew Radin, who is a political scientist at the RAND Corporation. He researches European security, NATO, and Russia’s foreign and security policy.

Also joining me is Andrew Scobel.  is a distinguished fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace, an adjunct political scientist at the RAND Corporation and an adjunct professor at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service.

They both worked on a RAND report called: China-Russia Cooperation Determining Factors, Future Trajectories, Implications for the United States

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Ukraine. Things are changing rapidly, but at this moment the Kremlin has the country surrounded. It’s conducting military drills in the Black Sea, marshaling troops in neighboring Belarus, and recalling mercenaries from Africa. Recently Putin even made a rape joke during a press conference to imply what he wanted from Ukraine.

It doesn’t look good. But to hear Ben & Jerry's Ice cream tell it, this is all because of the imperial U.S.-led aggression in Eastern Europe. Why does it seem like some Americans, from right-wing pundits to your terminally online socialist friend, can’t seem to take the Kremlin’s threats seriously?

With us today to answer that question is Christopher Atwood. Atwood senior advisor at the Souspilnist Foundation in Kyiv. He’s lived in both Russia and Ukraine.

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The Doomsday Clock is always ticking down. Between climate change, technological advances, new diseases, and the ever present threat of nuclear war … it often feels like we’re close to the end of civilization. How close? According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists … we’re 100 seconds to midnight. The closest we’ve ever been.

But what, exactly, is the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and this bizarre clock they oversee? Why, when we imagine the end of the world, do we see a clock ticking down to midnight. Where did this visual metaphor come from? Here to give us the history of the clock and explain how it has permeated our consciousness is Robert K. Elder.

Elder is the Chief Digital Editor of the Bulletin and a journalist who has authored many fine books. His latest is The Doomsday Clock at 75.

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Everyone has an opinion about Ukraine, but something I’ve noticed in Western media is that no one really seems to be asking Russians what they think of the situation. The reasons for that are extremely complicated. So let’s talk about them.

Here to talk about Russia’s view of the Ukraine conflict, Putin’s motivations, and to do a little … psychoanalysis … is Peter Pomerantsev. Pomerantsev is a returning guest, his latest in Time Magazine is What the West Will Never Understand About Putin's Ukraine Obsession. His latest book, which is also excellent, is This Is Not Propaganda.

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