On this week's episode, Max and Maria are joined by Federico Steinberg, a CSIS Visiting Fellow and economist, and Martin Sandbu of the Financial Times. Martin has closely followed the debate around sanctions, with a particular focus on Russian financial reserves that have been frozen by Western governments. His thorough breakdown of this topic is a must-listen for anyone trying to understand the Russian economy today.

Max and Maria are joined again by CSIS Senior Associate Michael Kimmage to discuss Ukraine's impending counteroffensive, and what it could mean for global politics going forward.

Learn More:

The Eurofile | Tories Battered in UK Local Elections, A Rant about the Stability and Growth Pact, and a Conversation with Jude Blanchette

Russia Sanctions at One Year

Out of Stock? Assessing the Impact of Sanctions on Russia’s Defense Industry

Today's episode is about the escalating waves of repression in Russia, and what they mean for both the regime and what remains of the organized domestic opposition. Maria sat down with Natalia Arno, the founder and president of the Free Russia Foundation, and Miriam Lanskoy, the Senior Director for Russia and Eurasia at the National Endowment for Democracy, to discuss this important topic.

Today's episode is a recording of an event Max and Maria held on April 14, 2023 to discuss the findings of a new CSIS report, "Out of Stock? Assessing the Impact of Sanctions on Russia's Defense Industry." Joined by Samuel Bendett and Paul Schwartz, Max and Maria discuss the effects Western sanctions and export regulations have had on Russia's ability to produce key weapons systems, in addition to the Kremlin's efforts to circumvent the sanctions regime.

Read the full report here.

On this week's episode, Max and Maria sit down with Russian journalist Michael Nacke, and scholar Nikolai Petrov, to talk about the state of the Russian elite today. Topics include the recently leaked phone call between Iosif Progozhin and Farkhad Akhmedov, the impact of individual sanctions on powerful Russians, and whether or not fragmentation is occurring within Russia's ruling circles and power vertical.

In this special episode, Max and Maria sit down with President Zelenskyy's Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Military Personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Aliona Verbitskaya. As you will hear, this conversation was conducted in Russian, with Vera Mironova serving as Aliona's translator.

This week’s special episode of Russian Roulette features an interview on Georgia’s foreign agents law conducted by our sister podcast, The Eurofile. Max Bergmann and Donatienne Ruy from the CSIS Europe, Russia, and Eurasia program sit down with Kakha Gogolashvili, Senior Fellow and Director of EU Studies at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, to discuss the recently abandoned foreign agents law, Russia’s presence in the South Caucasus, and Georgia’s EU membership aspirations. 

Listen to The Eurofile | CSIS Podcasts 

Read more: In Georgia, Civil Society Wins against Russia-Style ‘Foreign Agents’ Bill (csis.org) 

In this week's episode, you will hear a conversation Max had in December 2022 with Dr. Jeffrey Mankoff, discussing Jeff's book, Empires of Eurasia: How Imperial Legacies Shape International Security. Jeff argues that the imperial histories of contemporary China, Iran, Russia, and Turkey are critical in studying the international actions of these four Eurasian powers today.

In this episode, Max and Maria are joined by Michael Kimmage to discuss the state of affairs in Russia after a year of war in Ukraine, and where the country may be headed in 2023. Max, Maria, and Michael all highlight their recent writing connected to the war, and note the various debates around the impact of sanctions, Russia's shifting domestic political scene, and what all this means for Russia's leadership.

Read the articles discussed in the episode:

Listen to the audio from an event our team hosted at CSIS on February 15, 2023. Max Bergmann moderated a panel comprised of Maria Snegovaya, Michael Kimmage, and the RAND Corporation's Dara Massicot, a Senior Policy Researcher and expert on the Russian military. The discussion took stock of the war in Ukraine so far, its implications for both Ukraine and Russia, and the ongoing impact the war is having on European politics and US policy in the broader region.