Eliot and Eric welcome Fred Starr, former President of Oberlin University and current Chairman of the Central Asia and Caucasus Institute (CACI). They discuss the current situation in Russia and highlight the logistic difficulties and enormous human and material losses that Russian forces are facing. They also discuss Central Asian countries like Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan which are rich in mineral and hydrocarbon resources but have been governed by strongmen in the post-communist era. Finally, they conclude the conversation with an overview of the Caucuses highlighting the desire of many former Soviet states to escape Moscow's imperial shadow.

Red and Hot: The Fate of Jazz in the Soviet Union:
https://a.co/d/a8EbOiO

Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.