Expert Opinions: Russia, Eurasia

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

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.

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.

Photo by Tamara Malaniy on Unsplash

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, and also knows Sergei Kolosenikov, the whistleblower featured in Navalny’s recent video exposing Vladimir Putin’s alleged scheme to build a lavish palace on the Black Sea with Russian taxpayer money.

Photo by Mitya Aleshkovskiy via Wikimedia Commons.

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.

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.

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.

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 going on there now?

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 few see it coming, and what will happen next?