It's one year from the beginning of the Russian large-scale invasion of Ukraine. "Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks he can bully Ukrainians. But he only makes us angrier." This is what Iuliia Mendel said to me in our podcast debate. She is the former press secretary of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, from June 2019 until July 2021, author of the book The Fight of Our Lives, and opinion contributor for The Washington Post. And she also has a clear message for Moscow. Russia has to withdraw, beg for forgiveness and pay for the crimes. Perhaps then it can survive. Listen to our conversation. And if you enjoy what I do, please support me on Ko-fi! Thank you. https://ko-fi.com/amatisak

Could Russia try to stage a coup in Moldova? How probable is it? Is Moldova's government ready for such a scenario? And what about the problem of Transnistria? About the current developments in Moldova, I talked to Denis Cenusa. He is an associate expert at The Eastern Europe Studies Centre (EESC) in Vilnius. Listen to our conversation. And if you enjoy what I do, please support me on Ko-fi! Thank you. https://ko-fi.com/amatisak

We are all following Rob Lee on Twitter, aren't we? I'm not sure when he sleeps but his feed is all the time full of interesting information, analysis, and videos related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. With all of this, I'm really happy that Rob joined my podcast. No introduction is needed, but he is a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia Program, and a Ph.D. student researching Russian defense policy at King’s College London’s War Studies Department. And, of course, he is also a former Marine infantry officer. We talked about the trends that shaped the war, about possible offensive of the both sides, and also about the peace prospects. Listen to our conversation. And if you enjoy what I do, please support me on Ko-fi! Thank you. https://ko-fi.com/amatisak

Finland and Sweden are still out of NATO despite the agreement from the Alliance summit in June in Madrid. Is Turkey playing a divide-and-conquer game as it seems Ankara is all the time moving the goalposts? Is Russian happy about it? And what about Hungary? I talked to Toni Alaranta, Senior Research Fellow in the European Union Research Programme at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA). His areas of expertise include Turkey’s domestic and foreign policies, in particular Turkey’s relations with the EU, the US and Russia. Listen to our conversation. And if you enjoy what I do, please support me on Ko-fi! Thank you. https://ko-fi.com/amatisak

How is the Russian invasion against Ukraine shaping Japan's security views? What are Tokyo's main concerns? China, North Korea, Russia? I talked to John Nilsson-Wright, University Associate Professor in Modern Japanese Politics and International Relations at Cambridge University and Korea Foundation Korea Fellow and Senior Research Fellow for Northeast Asia with the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House. And as the government of PM Fumio Kishida boosts the defense investments, we have also discussed the attitudes of Japanese citizens towards a more complex and hostile regional and global security environment. Listen to our conversation. And if you enjoy what I do, please support me on Ko-fi! Thank you. https://ko-fi.com/amatisak

Wilder Alejandro Sanchez is an analyst of defense, trade and geopolitical issues in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Western Hemisphere and the President of Second Floor Strategies, a consulting firm in Washington, DC. As his expertise stretched from the post-Soviet space to Latin America, I picked Alex's brain and we talked about how the mentioned regions reacted to the Russian war against  Ukraine. The focus of our conversion has been Kazakhstan, but we also talked about Moldova and Latin America and the Caribbean. Listen to our conversion. And if you enjoy what I do, please support me on Ko-fi! Thank you. https://ko-fi.com/amatisak

The first round of the presidential election in Czechia takes place on 13 and 14 January. There are three clear favorites for the run-off. Ex-Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, former rector of Mendel University in Brno Danuše Nerudová, and former Chair of the NATO Military Committee Petr Pavel. I talked to Seán Hanley, an Associate Professor in Comparative Central and East European Politics at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies. We tried to assess what to expect from the presidential election and who might win this vote. Listen to our conversation. And if you enjoy what I do, please support me on Ko-fi! Thank you. https://ko-fi.com/amatisak

Russian President Vladimir Putin achieved less than nothing. This is how Tom Nichols assesses the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Tom is a staff writer at The Atlantic and Professor Emeritus of national-security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, where he taught for 25 years. So is Putin the biggest loser of 2022? Are we witnessing Cold War 2.0? Read not just the latest Tom's book Our Own Worst Enemy: The Assault From Within on Modern Democracy and listen to our conversation. And if you enjoy what I do, please support me on Ko-fi! Thank you. https://ko-fi.com/amatisak

Maria Avdeeva is Ukrainian disinformation and security expert from Kharkiv. From the beginning of the large-scale Russian invasion she is trying to document what is going on. I talked to Maria jusť before the big aggression and also a few times in the past months. And while the situation is complicated, I'm glad that we had a chance to reconnect. The war is raging but it's also a bit of a Christmas episode. Because there is hope for Ukraine, there must be hope for Ukraine. Listen to our conversation and find out how did Maria prepare "Russian warship, go fuck yourself" gingerbread. And if you enjoy what I do, please support me on Ko-fi! Thank you. https://ko-fi.com/amatisak

Every comparison is a problematic one, but it is also interesting to educationally speculate. I talked to Rory Truex, an Assistant Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. His research focuses on Chinese politics and authoritarian systems. We also discussed one very hypothetical question. Would Xi Jinping attack Ukraine if he would rule Russia? What was Rory's answer? How does he assess China-Russia relations but also internal dynamics within the CCP? Listen to our conversation. And if you enjoy what I do, please support me on Ko-fi! Thank you. https://ko-fi.com/amatisak