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We have filmmaker Andrei Nekrasov back on the show to talk about his experience being Andrei Tarkovsky’s assistant on the set of Sacrifice, Tarkovsky’s last film.

We discuss the dismal state of culture in Russia after the fall of the USSR, the provincial state of mind of today’s Russian intelligentsia, and the much scarier ultranationalist opposition to Putin that might follow his rule. We also find out that Tarkovsky was upset that he wasn’t a novelist, wonder where he’d stand politically if he was alive today, and talk about Solzhenitsyn as the Ayn Rand of Soviet dissidents.

Listen to our previous interview with Andrei about the war in Ukraine and Russian liberals. And check out his great documentaries, including Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case and The Magnitsky Act – Behind the Scenes.

—The Russians

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