How do we know what Russians really think?

Timothy Frye of Columbia University and Samuel Greene of King’s College London join Michael Kimmage and Maria Lipman for The Long View to examine Russian public opinion following the September Duma elections. Frye is the Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy at Columbia, while Greene is Professor of Russian Politics at King’s College London.  

The conversation explores what the elections can tell us about Russian society, attitudes toward the government and the war in Ukraine, and the relationship between public opinion and political power.

Frye and Greene also examine the challenge at the heart of researching contemporary Russia: how can public opinion be measured and interpreted in an authoritarian political environment? They consider the strengths and limitations of polling, elections, and other evidence used to understand what Russians think.

Together, the discussion asks not only what Russian public opinion is, but how confidently researchers can assess it and what those findings can tell us about politics and society in Russia.

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How does Russia’s confrontation with the West extend beyond Europe and the United States?

Hanna Notte, a Kennan Institute Non-Resident Fellow and author of We Shall Outlast Them: Putin’s Global Campaign to Defeat the West, joins Michael Kimmage and Maria Lipman for The Long View to examine the global dimensions of Russian foreign policy.

Drawing on research and travel across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, Notte explores how Russia’s war against Ukraine has transformed Moscow’s relationships around the world. She examines Russia’s use of economic statecraft, political narratives, and international partnerships, as well as how countries outside the West respond to Russian overtures according to their own interests.

The conversation considers how the war has reshaped Russia’s global strategy, the limits of Moscow’s influence, and what Russia’s engagement beyond Europe and the United States reveals about a changing international order.

📖 Featured Book: We Shall Outlast Them: Putin’s Global Campaign to Defeat the West
https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324117018

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How has Russia’s war against Ukraine transformed the people who govern the country?

Alexandra Prokopenko of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center joins Michael Kimmage and Maria Lipman to discuss her book, From Sovereigns to Servants: How the War Against Ukraine Reshaped Russia’s Elite.

Tracing Russian governance from the 1990s to the present, Prokopenko examines how members of Russia’s political elite have lost political agency under Vladimir Putin and increasingly become implementers of decisions made at the top.

The conversation explores the patterns of loyalty and compliance that sustain the system, the role of informal practices in Russian governance, the rise of younger technocrats, and how the full-scale invasion of Ukraine accelerated changes already underway within Russia’s ruling elite.

Together, they consider what these transformations reveal about power, decision-making, and governance in contemporary Russia.

What does “Eurasia” mean for understanding Russia?

Michael Kimmage is joined by Ayşe Zarakol of Cambridge University and Alexander Cooley of Barnard College to explore the historical, political, and geopolitical meanings of Eurasia and what they reveal about Russia’s place within it.

Zarakol considers Russia through the history and shared legacies of Eurasia’s steppe empires, while cautioning against defining Russia exclusively as Eurasian and overlooking its European heritage and political agency. Cooley traces the changing meaning of Eurasia in foreign policy, particularly since the end of the Cold War and amid shifting approaches to Western influence and regional integration.

Together, they explore how competing ideas of Eurasia have shaped understandings of Russia and the geopolitical configurations surrounding it.

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Recorded live at The LINE Hotel’s Banneker Ballroom in Washington, D.C., this special edition of The Long View features M. Gessen, journalist, author, opinion columnist for The New York Times, and host of The Idiot podcast, in conversation with Maria Lipman and Michael Kimmage.

The conversation explores Gessen’s journey from the Soviet Union to the United States and back to Russia, the role of literature and personal experience in their writing, and the challenges of telling stories about identity, exile, authoritarianism, and political change.

A production of the Kennan Institute.

Michael Kimmage is joined by sociologist Ekaterina Klimenko and Alicja Curanovic, Professor at the University of Warsaw, for a discussion on the role of Kievan Rus in contemporary Russian politics and the ways historical narratives shape national identity, state legitimacy, and foreign policy.

The conversation examines how Russia’s political leadership has drawn on medieval history to construct a vision of national continuity, why Kievan Rus occupies such a central place in Russian historical memory, and how competing claims to that legacy have become intertwined with Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Topics include national memory, post-Soviet identity, Russian nationalism, the political use of history, and the contested legacy of Kievan Rus.

A production of the Kennan Institute.

Michael Kimmage speaks with historian Nicole Eaton about the remarkable transformation of Königsberg into Kaliningrad and the ways Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union each sought to remake the city and its inhabitants.

Drawing on her book, German Blood, Slavic Soil, Eaton explores the history of East Prussia, the destruction of Königsberg during World War II, the expulsion of its German population, and the Soviet effort to build an entirely new society in its place.

The conversation examines how ideology, war, migration, and memory shaped one of Europe’s most consequential territorial transformations and what Kaliningrad’s history can tell us about twentieth-century Europe.

Nicole Eaton is Associate Professor of History at Boston College and a specialist in the history of Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and World War II.

A production of the Kennan Institute.

In this episode of The Long View, Bradley Gorski and Yasha Klots discuss the evolution of Russian literature after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The conversation explores the transition from Soviet era ideological publishing to the chaotic and dynamic literary marketplace of the 1990s, the lifting of censorship, the return of previously banned works, and the emergence of new literary voices and genres in post Soviet Russia.

Together, the speakers examine how political change, market forces, and shifting cultural expectations transformed Russian literary life after 1991.

Featuring:
Bradley Gorski, Georgetown University
Yasha Klots, Hunter College

A production of the Kennan Institute.

In this episode of The Long View, Ian Buruma discusses his book Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939–1945 and reflects on the broader question of how war is written and remembered.

The conversation considers life in Berlin during the Second World War, the cultural and human dimensions of wartime experience, and the moral complexities faced by individuals living under authoritarian rule. It also expands beyond World War II to examine the craft of writing about war, both during conflict and after the fact.

This episode offers a historical and reflective perspective on how narratives of war shape our understanding of the past and inform the present.

In this episode of The Long View, Lana Estemirova, journalist and human rights activist, joins Elizabeth Culp for a conversation on growing up during the Chechen wars and the lasting impact of conflict on personal and political life.

Drawing from her memoir, Please Live: The Chechen Wars, My Mother and Me, Estemirova shares an intimate account of her childhood shaped by war, as well as the enduring influence of her mother, Natalia Estemirova, a leading Memorial human rights activist.

The discussion explores the broader implications of the Chechen conflicts of the 1990s and 2000s, examining their role in shaping Chechnya’s political trajectory and the importance of civic engagement in confronting injustice.

Blending personal narrative with historical insight, this episode offers a powerful reflection on resilience, memory, and activism across Russia and the post-Soviet states.