In May 2023, Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), traveled to Russia to visit her ailing mother. While awaiting her flight back to the US in June, she was detained by Russian authorities and subsequently charged for failing to register as a “foreign agent.” If convicted, she faces up to five years in a Russian prison. On this episode of The Eastern Front, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia speak with Jeffrey Gedmin, acting president of RFE/RL, and Pavel Butorin, Kurmasheva’s husband and director of Current Time TV at RFE/RL. Gedmin and Butorin provide an update on Kurmasheva’s situation, discuss their ongoing collaboration with the US State Department to bring her home, and shed light on the growing threats that journalists face in Russia and other authoritarian nations.

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On November 8, the European Commission adopted the 2023 enlargement package, which recommended opening negotiations for Ukraine and Moldova to officially join the EU. On this episode of The Eastern Front, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia speak with Oleksiy Goncharenko, Ukrainian parliament member, to discuss EU accession and Ukraine’s domestic politics. Do recent comments from Republican presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, accurately reflect the state of Ukrainian democracy? What might disagreements between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine’s military leadership suggest about the war’s future? To what extent would EU accession change the trajectory of the war—and would it change for better or worse?

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When one makes a seemingly dramatic choice, they are faced with the option to either walk back the consequences that choice has engendered or be consumed by that choice. This is the predicament Russian President Vladimir Putin has found himself in, argues AEI's Dr. Leon Aron in his new book, Riding the Tiger: Vladimir Putin's Russia and the Uses of War. On this episode of The Eastern Front, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia are joined by Dr. Aron to discuss his new book and the "house" that Putin has built in Russia. What have been Putin's most important milestones in building this house? To what extent is Putin's house built on previous iterations of Russia, or even Soviet, imperialism? What have been the primary "uses of war" driving Putin's ongoing invasion of Ukraine?

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Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, The Telegraph's journalists created a podcast, Ukraine: The Latest, to provide daily analysis on the conflict from a variety of angles. Since then, it has become one of the leading sources for coverage on the war. On this episode of The Eastern Front, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia speak with Francis Dearnley, assistant comment editor at The Telegraph and a voice on Ukraine: The Latest, to learn about the United Kingdom's perspective on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the evolution of the podcast over the last year and a half. What have been some of the most shocking revelations since covering the war? Why has the UK been "bolder and braver" than other European countries in its support for Ukraine? Is there any strain of isolationism in the UK? Dearnley also shares his theory on the "mental block" that has prevented people from actively engaging with horrific content from the war.

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This past weekend saw Donald Tusk—former Polish prime minister and the head of the largest opposition group, Civic Coalition—declare victory for his party following the 2023 Polish parliamentary elections on October 15th. The elections marked Poland's highest voter turnout in the history of its democracy. On this week's episode of The Eastern Front, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia speak with Łukasz Fyderek, assistant professor at the Institute of the Middle East and Far East at Jagiellonian University, to break down the Polish elections and discuss its regional implications. What was the biggest surprise to come out of the elections? Are the results a rejection of the governing Law and Justice party's "German-bashing"? To what extent will Poland's foreign policy change with the formation of a new government, particularly with regard to Polish-Ukrainian relations?

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There has been a longstanding trope in the United States that Ukraine is a hopelessly corrupt country, which has abetted the growing movement in favor of withdrawing aid. On this episode of The Eastern Front, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia welcome back Tamar Jacoby, director of the New Ukraine Project at the Progressive Policy Institute, to challenge misconceptions about Ukraine's corruption problem and discuss why a Democratic, Western-oriented market economy in Ukraine is just as vital to US interests as removing Russian troops. How has the war changed the Ukrainian people's sentiments about their country's corruption? What have been some of the institutional changes the Ukrainian government has undertaken to combat corruption? Is it necessary for US aid to be conditional on corruption reform?

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Since WWII, the relationship between American and German strategic culture has been deeply intertwined. However, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine was an external shock that fundamentally altered aspects of Germany's strategic culture, while leaving others untouched. On this episode of The Eastern Front, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia speak with Heiko Biehl, head of the research department at the Center for Military History and Social Sciences at the Bundeswehr in Potsdam, to discuss the shift in Germany's strategic culture over the last year and a half. To what extent has Germany's relationship with the US and NATO—at the expense of its relationship with France—become more relevant since the war? Is German strategic culture at risk of changing again with the potential return of Donald Trump to the White House? What are German attitudes towards the use of hard power? Is the country willing to engage militarily with Russia?

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The international community is still reeling after Hamas launched a surprise air, sea, and land assault on Israel this past weekend that led to mass civilian casualties—the worst Israel has seen in its existence. In a pivot from The Eastern Front's usual content, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia discuss the massacre, the problem with the current discourse around the conflict, and its implications for US foreign policy. Is there a double standard applied to Israel that inhibits large swaths of the political left from condemning violence against the state? Has the current discussion around possibly shifting US attention to Israel from Ukraine reflect a larger inability for the US to respond to simultaneous crises? The co-hosts also reflect on the recent Slovakian and upcoming Polish parliamentary elections, and their implications for Ukraine.

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In the 1990s, Poland and Ukraine's real GDP per capita were roughly on par with one another. Over the span of 20 years, Poland has become almost three times as wealthy and is now a hub for Europe's capital market. On this episode of The Eastern Front, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia speak with Dr. Marek Dietl, CEO of the GPW Warsaw Stock Exchange and economic advisor to Polish president Andrzej Duda, to discuss the rapid evolvement of Poland's economy. What was the catalyst behind Poland's economic takeoff? Might it now be threatened by the Russia-Ukraine war and decreased EU funding? To what extent has Poland managed to successfully decouple itself from the Russian economy? Given the amount of money Poland is putting towards military expansion, are there any talks about building a trans-Atlantic defense industry?

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Much of the criticism against Russia's invasion of Ukraine has come from Western political analysts, US and EU government officials, and the Ukrainians at the center of the conflict. Yet, seldom is the public at liberty to hear from Russian insiders who can best speak to President Vladimir Putin's strategic thinking. On this episode of The Eastern Front, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia sit down with Andrei Kozyrev, Russia's first foreign minister from 1990-1996, to get his perspective on the war itself and the popular commentary surrounding it. Is Putin a pragmatic or irrational actor? Is the West's fear of Russian escalation misguided? How can the US best ensure that Russia doesn't resort to nuclear aggression? Is the growing Russia-China dynamic a long-term strategic alliance or just a temporary marriage of convenience? Kozyrev also shares anecdotes from his time as foreign minister that may serve as lessons for US policy towards Russia today.

Show notes: Sign up for The Eastern Front's bi-weekly newsletter here and follow us on X here. Purchase The Firebird: The Elusive Fate of Russian Democracy by Andrei Kozyrev here.