The Final Service

When President Biden calls Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” and says that Russia’s war in Ukraine amounts to “genocide,” what does it mean? Do such prounouncements place obligations on the United States? Does it threaten some sort of legal jeopardy for the Russian president? When an artilleryman a thousand yards away sends a projectile slamming into an apartment building full of civilians, is that a war crime? Is the soldier who released the shell more or less responsible than the politician a thousand miles away who ordered the assault on a city? Ray Suarez tackles these questions with a war-crimes prosecutor and a former student organizer who played a critical role in the downfall of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who was the first sitting head of state indicted for war crimes.

 

Guests:  

Ivan Marovic, International Center on Nonviolent Conflict 

Alex Whiting, war-crimes prosecutor and visiting professor at Harvard Law School

Host: 

Ray Suarez, co-host WorldAffairs

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

Even with the heat turned up on Russian oligarchs—and more recently, his own family—Vladimir Putin’s wealth remains one of the biggest mysteries for law enforcement, investigative journalists, and anti-corruption activists.

New York Times investigative journalist Mike McIntire explains to us what his reporting has uncovered about Putin’s strategy for avoiding sanctions, the Western advisors who shield his inner circle from financial scrutiny, and maybe, perhaps, where the Russian President is ultimately hiding his riches.

 

Guests:

 

Mike McIntire,  investigative reporter The New York Times

 

Host:  

 

Ray Suarez, co-host WorldAffairs

 

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

A complex web of shell companies, offshore banks and hidden transactions has concealed the wealth of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his oligarchs for years. With international sanctions aimed at staunching the flow of money that funds Russia's war in Ukraine, a new nonprofit reporting collaboration led by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and the Guardian, launched the Russian Asset Tracker. It's the most comprehensive database to date that catalogs the assets of Russians with links to Putin. On this episode of the podcast, we follow the money trail to better understand the connection between Putin’s power and his oligarchs. Then we explore the legal mechanisms for seizing these assets. 

Guests:

Drew Sullivan, co-founder of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project 

Karen Greenaway, former special agent in the FBI's International Corruption Unit

Host:  

Ray Suarez, co-host WorldAffairs

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

Teklia Zumuy fled Eritrea, a small and autocratic nation in the Horn of Africa, in 2016. He sought out for a new life in Europe, and hoped to eventually bring his wife and three young daughters with him. But as he attempted to cross the Mediterranean Sea on a small wooden boat, Teklia and his companions were apprehended by the Italian Coast Guard and handed over to Libyan militias. He was held there for over two years, with inadequate food or health services, and with no way to contact his family. Teklia is one of hundreds of migrants whose stories are told in a new book by investigative journalist Sally Hayden. In My Fourth Time, We Drowned, Hayden reports on a shadowy immigration system, created by the European Union, which captures and imprisons African migrants in Libya, keeping them from reaching European soil. In Libya, they endure starvation, scorching temperatures, beatings and rape -- and are sold to human traffickers. In an interview with Senior KQED editor Rachael Myrow, Hayden also explains the role that western institutions have played in this humanitarian crisis.

 

Featuring:

Rachael Myrow, senior editor of KQED's Silicon Valley News Desk

Sally Hayden, author of My Fourth Time, We Drowned and Africa correspondent for the Irish Times

Teklia Zumuy, teacher and refugee

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

In times of crisis, one of the most painful decisions people face is whether to stay or leave: to risk abandoning their homes, personal belongings, and sometimes, loved ones. 10 million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes this month. Many have been displaced within their country. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has called this exodus Europe’s fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II.

 

In this episode, we hear audio diaries from two people on opposite sides of the crisis. First, filmmaker Iryna Tsilk, who we first met in the weeks before the invasion, takes us through her decision to leave Kyiv where her husband is fighting as a soldier in Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces. Then, a Russian-Ukrainian student living in Germany named Alex records his story from the road. The week after Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, Alex traveled to a border crossing with Poland, joining a ragtag army of volunteers providing humanitarian assistance and safe passage to those fleeing Ukraine.

 

Guest Contributors:

 

Iryna Tsilyk, filmmaker and director of “The Earth is Blue as an Orange”

 

Alex Gerz, Russian-Ukrainian student based in Kassel, Germany

 

Host(s):  

 

Ray Suarez, WorldAffairs co-host

 

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

Last week, President Biden announced the U.S. is accepting 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.

 

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was three years old when he and his family fled Odessa for a better life in the U.S. He, along with his twin brother Yevgeny, rose through the ranks of military service, to the role of Eastern European affairs expert on the National Security Council. Vindman’s past and present converged on the stand when he appeared as a lead witness in the first impeachment of President Donald Trump, which dealt with the U.S. relationship to Ukraine.

 

In the second part of our interview with Lt. Col. Vindman, he speaks with Ray Suarez about the phone call that changed everything, how his immigrant experience inspired his courageous testimony, and why he says President Trump and figures within the GOP have “blood on their hands,” and set the stage for Vladimir Putin’s inevitable invasion of Ukraine.

 

And World Affairs CEO, Philip Yun, pays tribute to the late Madeleine Albright.

 

Guest(s):

 

(Ret.) Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, director for European and Russian affairs at the National Security Council from 2018 to 2020

 

Host:  

 

Ray Suarez, World Affairs co-host

 

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

When Alexander Vindman warned the world about President Donald Trump's July 2019 phone call with Ukranian President Volodymr Zelensky, he says he was thinking about the U.S. Constitution and his duty as an American. But as a retired army Lieutenant Colonel and former director of European affairs for the National Security Council, Vindman was also thinking about the role that a sovereign and democratic Ukraine plays in U.S. national security interests.

 

In part one of Alexander Vindman’s conversation with Ray Suarez, they discuss how Ukraine, Russia, and the world have been changed by Putin’s war.

 

On the hesitancy of Western powers to get involved, Vindman says, “There is wishful thinking about the fact that we could return to a world before this war. And that's impossible for me. To me, it's clear that we're in a cold war.”

 

Guest:

 

(Ret.) Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, director for European and Russian affairs at the National Security Council from 2018 to 2020

 

Host:

 

Ray Suarez, WorldAffairs co-host

 

What do you think about the war in Ukraine? What coverage on the war would you like to hear from us? We’d love to hear from you. Send us a message at [email protected].

 

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

This is not the first time Russia invaded a neighboring country that was being considered for entry into NATO. In 2008, Moscow took advantage of a conflict in Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia as a justification to invade. A brutal five day war followed and today, 20% of Georgia’s internationally recognized territory remains under Russian military occupation. Journalist Levi Bridges traveled to the former Soviet republic of Georgia to see the remnants of its 2008 war with Russia – and what the conflict can or can’t tell us about Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.  This is part 2 of a three-part series looking at how Vladimir's Putin consolidates power in former Soviet republics. Please be sure to listen to part 1: A War Between Dictators and the Free World with Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and watch the podcast feed for part 3 to drop on Thursday.

Guests:

Liana Chlachidze, Ergneti village resident

Galina Kelekhsaeva, German language teacher 

Gerard Toal, professor of government and international affairs at Virginia Tech

Shalva Dzebisashvili, head of political science at the University of Georgia in Tbilisi

Nino Tsagareishvili, legal advisor to German development agency GIZ

Host:  Ray Suarez

Reporter: Levi Bridges

Belarus, a former Soviet republic which shares a 700 mile border with Ukraine, has been used as a staging ground for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has long had strong ties to the Kremlin, but he has become increasingly dependent on Putin since he retained power after a contested election in 2020. International observers recognized the true victor as Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is now leading her country’s democratic movement in exile. An English teacher and mother, she rose to prominence when her husband was jailed for publicly speaking out against the regime. In a conversation with Ray Suarez, Tsikhanouskaya warned, “This is not a war between Russia and Ukraine. It's a war between dictators and the free world. And there’s a moral obligation of every person in this free world to be with those who are fighting.” 

Guest: Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, exiled leader of the Belarusian democratic movement

Host: Ray Suarez, co-host of World Affairs 

This is part 1 of a three-part series looking at how Vladimir's Putin consolidates power in former Soviet republics. Please be sure to listen to part 2 If Putin Succeeds in Ukraine, Is Georgia Next? and watch the podcast feed for part 3 to drop on Thursday.

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

As the war in Ukraine drags on, global alliances are shifting, sometimes in surprising ways. A delegation from the White House recently made a secret trip to Caracas to discuss the possibility of easing sanctions on Venezuelan oil just as the Biden administration is planning to ban Russian oil imports. A few days later, Venezuela freed two jailed Americans in an apparent goodwill gesture. One of the freed prisoners was among six Citgo oil executives arrested in 2017 and convicted on charges the U.S. government says were fabricated. Five of the men still remain in prison. Venezuela is not alone in its use of hostage diplomacy. Russia recently announced the arrest of WNBA player Brittney Griner. She is one of at least three Americans held unjustly by Russian authorities. On this week’s episode, we meet the State Department’s lead hostage negotiator, an innocent man who was held hostage for 544 days in an Iranian prison and his brother who led the campaign to free him. Their conversation was recorded in front of a live audience at the World Affairs Center in San Francisco.

 

Guests:  

Ambassador Roger Carstens, Special Envoy to Hostage Affairs at the US Department of State

Jason Rezaian, Washington Post global opinions writer, host of 544 Days and author of Prisoner 

Ali Rezaian, consultant and leader of the “Free Jason and Yegi” campaign 

Hosts: 

Philip Yun, President and CEO of World Affairs

Lily Jamali, senior reporter at American Public Media’s Marketplace