NEFARIOUS RUSSIANS

This war’s been going on for a month now. Evgenia and I sit down to talk about it. Some of the things we discuss: the ridiculous online discourse around this war and the championing of Putin as some sort of anti-imperialist defender of the global south, how formerly privileged Russian liberals are having a sudden moment of clarity about their role in whitewashing Putin’s feudal rule, sanctions…and much, much more.

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—Yasha Levine

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We continue our Immigrant Deprogramming series by talking to Denis Lavinski, an artist in LA, who was raised in the White Russian/Vlasovite-influenced Russian Orthodox Church in California by his Soviet immigrant parents.

Denis’s childhood experience is interesting and relevant today because the ideology he grew up in is basically the ideology that Putin stole and has been repackaging to legitimize his rule. You can see it on full display in Russia right now being used to prop up his regime change war in Ukraine — a mixture of Russian imperialism, nationalism, and Russian Orthodoxy, with Soviet WWII glory moments thrown in to round out the mess.

A couple of notes and thoughts…

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Check out our previous Immigrant Deprogramming episodes in the archive. And don’t forget to check out Denis’s art work on Instagram…and follow him on Twitter.

—Yasha Levine

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Thousands and maybe even tens of thousands of Russians have fled the country in a panic following Putin’s regime change invasion of Ukraine — going to wherever they can: Georgia, Turkey, Armenia, Dubai, the EU. To get a sense of what’s going on and who is fleeing and what people are thinking, we talk to Anna, an old friend of Evgenia’s from her school days, who is currently in Istanbul and among Russians who have fled.

The picture we get is that there are two basic groups of people fleeing Russia. One is journalists and opposition media types. The second is a lot of freaked out people — those who have some money and are scared of what might come next, like a military draft or totally closed borders. Anna thinks that lot of people in the second category will ultimately return to Russia is things stabilize because…well…it’s not like there are big opportunities waiting for them in the west, unless they're programmers or computer engineers.

This is a preview of a full episode that is only available to subscribers. To hear the rest, sign up and listen here.

—Yasha Levine

Listen to our previous episodes…including the last two we did on the Russia’s war in Ukraine.

* Putin's Grievance Speech...and, f**k this war.

* “Operation Z”

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A week into Putin’s regime change war, Evgenia and I sit down to talk about our thoughts on what’s happening and about what we’re hearing from friends and family in Russia. On one side, it’s clear there are a lot of people totally backing Putin’s “humanitarian intervention” — for instance, my mom’s childhood friend in St. Petersburg screamed at her that “Putin is God” and that “he’s saving the Russian people.” On the other, a lot of Russians are shocked and totally terrified by what’s happening, and a good number of people are fleeing as best they can to wherever they can — Georgia, Azerbaijan, Israel, Turkey, European countries.

It’s obvious this war is splitting society in a big way. And Putin’s propagandists are working overtime, using the only thing that still sort of binds Russia together: a kind of aggrieved nationalism and the memory of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.

In a way, this regime change war is brining to conclusion a societal split that began in earnest in 2011 — when Putin turned his back on big city liberals and started pumping up support among Russia’s silent majority. Or, as Evgenia puts it, what’s emerged now is a coalition of ruling elite vampires and the “zombies” that Russian liberals love to mock. Operation Z.

—Yasha Levine

This is a preview of a full episode that is only available to subscribers. To hear the rest, sign up and listen here.

Catch up on some old eps:

* Putin's Grievance Speech...and, f**k this war.

* China's Olympic Menace and Immigrant Deprogramming with Carl Zha

* The Ayahuasca Special

* Christmas Special: Ghost of Epstein

* St. Paul of Amsterdam

* …more

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nefariousrussians.com/subscribe

Putin shocked and surprised pretty much everyone in Russia by launching a regime change war on Ukraine. Two days before that, he went on Russian TV and gave a menacing grievance speech — in which he attacked America but also went after the Bolsheviks, blaming the disintegration of the Soviet Union and today’s crisis in Ukraine squarely on Lenin.

Evgenia and I discuss his speech and talk about how it fits into the mushy national identity that Putin’s elite has been trying to cobble together for Russia.

—Yasha Levine

This is a preview of a full episode that is only available to subscribers. To hear the rest, sign up and listen here.

Catch up on some old eps:

* China's Olympic Menace and Immigrant Deprogramming with Carl Zha

* “Navalny,” the documentary

* The Ayahuasca Special

* Christmas Special: Ghost of Epstein

* St. Paul of Amsterdam

* Immigrant Deprogramming with Nika Dubrovsky

* Imaginary Futures with Richard Barbrook

* Behind the Silicon Curtain

* The Soviet Jew & good riddance Los Feliz

* “I didn’t want to live in a simulacrum of American life in the ruins of the Soviet Union”

* Watching American movies in the USSR ft. Boris Levine

* Anti-Soviet identities in the USSR

* The End

* Breeders

* Adam Curtis, get out of my head

* Navalny, the Kremlin, and the curse of neoliberalism

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nefariousrussians.com/subscribe

In this ep Evgenia and I talk about Inventing Anna, the new show that just landed on Netflix based on the story of Anna Sorokin — a young Russian immigrant from Germany who tried scamming her way into New York’s global elite a few years back.

—Yasha Levine

PS: Towards the end of the show we mention Mark Ames’ great piece about the tragic story of a different ambitious Anna — an Anna Loginova — who tried making it in Moscow…

This is a preview of a full episode that is only available to subscribers. To get the rest, sign up and listen here.

Catch up on some old eps:

* China's Olympic Menace and Immigrant Deprogramming with Carl Zha

* “Navalny,” the documentary

* The Ayahuasca Special

* Christmas Special: Ghost of Epstein

* St. Paul of Amsterdam

* Immigrant Deprogramming with Nika Dubrovsky

* Imaginary Futures with Richard Barbrook

* Behind the Silicon Curtain

* The Soviet Jew & good riddance Los Feliz

* “I didn’t want to live in a simulacrum of American life in the ruins of the Soviet Union”

* Watching American movies in the USSR ft. Boris Levine

* Anti-Soviet identities in the USSR

* The End

* Breeders

* Adam Curtis, get out of my head

* Navalny, the Kremlin, and the curse of neoliberalism

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nefariousrussians.com/subscribe

In this ep Evgenia and I are joined by Carl Zha to talk about the insane reaction — including accusations of treason and betrayal — coming out of U.S. media after American skier Eileen Gu decided to compete for China. We then transition to talking about Carl’s experience as a Chinese immigrant growing up in America.

This is a preview of a full episode that is only available to subscribers. To get the rest, sign up and listen here.

If you don’t know Carl, he runs the great “Silk and Steal” podcast about Chinese history and culture. He’s being constantly libeled in western media as some sort sneaky propagandist for the Chinese government because he offers a balanced view of his homeland and not the constant China bashing that’s expected from immigrants like him — a topic that we get into in our interview. Check him out on Patreon and YouTube.

—Yasha Levine

Catch up on some old eps:

* “Navalny,” the documentary

* The Ayahuasca Special

* Christmas Special: Ghost of Epstein

* St. Paul of Amsterdam

* Immigrant Deprogramming with Nika Dubrovsky

* Imaginary Futures with Richard Barbrook

* Behind the Silicon Curtain

* The Soviet Jew & good riddance Los Feliz

* “I didn’t want to live in a simulacrum of American life in the ruins of the Soviet Union”

* Watching American movies in the USSR ft. Boris Levine

* Anti-Soviet identities in the USSR

* The End

* Breeders

* Adam Curtis, get out of my head

* Navalny, the Kremlin, and the curse of neoliberalism

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nefariousrussians.com/subscribe

A new “Navalny” documentary was all the rage a few days ago, when it won several awards at the Sundance Film Festival. We review this shallow, predictable film and talk about the larger political situation in Russia — something that’s completely missing from the doc.

—Yasha Levine

This is a preview of a full episode that is only available to subscribers. To get the rest, sign up and listen here.

A couple of notes.

We mention Evgenia’s mockumentary — Changemaker — which perfectly captures the essence of the kind of filmmaker who directs a film like “Navalny.” And we reference a couple of old episodes, so check them out if you haven’t already:

* Russians Against Politics

* “I didn’t want to live in a simulacrum of American life in the ruins of the Soviet Union”

* Navalny, the Kremlin, and the curse of neoliberalism

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nefariousrussians.com/subscribe

For this ep we have something special for you: Evgenia and I talk about a trip we took a few years ago to the jungles of Peru for an ayahuasca retreat. We thought we were going to commune with an ancient spirit. Instead we got plunged right back into something very familiar: our own sad, atomized society.

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Evgenia in our palatial accommodations, enjoying a respite from the ceremony.

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We got a Christmas Eve Special for you. Evgenia and I talk about the Epstein case and the reaction to it here in America. The starting point of our discussion is a comment Evgenia made a while ago: “One thing confuses me. I’m not American so I don’t fully know the culture. Do people really expect...and are people outraged that the people in power are not upright citizens? If we roll back history, weren’t feudal lords known for raping peasants? I’m talking about basic stuff!”

Merry Christmas and Happy Listening!

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—Yasha Levine

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nefariousrussians.com/subscribe