The Russia Guy

Today's guest is Casey Michel, an investigative reporter at ThinkProgress, a member of the Advisory Council for the Hudson Institute's Kleptocracy Initiative, and a senior investigative fellow with the Human Rights Foundation. Casey has written about and followed Maria Butina’s case closely since she was arrested last July, and he kindly joined The Russia Guy to talk about her sentence and answer some of my questions about her case, specifically about the role of money, a declaration by former FBI counterintelligence expert Robert Anderson, Alexander Torshin, James Bamford, and more.Follow Casey on Twitter here:https://twitter.com/cjcmichelAnd read his work at ThinkProgress here:https://thinkprogress.org/author/casey-michel/Support this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:Ну погоди, episode 14, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncHd3sxpEbo&t=7sОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQHenrik Lundkvist, “Kalinka on a Balalaika,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH5znHQ9QRYSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)

Kevin's guest today is well known in Russia to Echo of Moscow listeners and readers, and English speakers might know her as a contributing writer at The American Interest, where some of her latest articles address Russia’s captured Ukrainian sailors, the arrest of American investor Michael Calvey in Moscow, and a whole lot more. Please welcome to The Russia Guy Karina Orlova.In this interview, Orlova talks about how Russia’s corrupt legal system drove her to journalism. She describes her life as a Russian journalist living in Washington, D.C., and argues at length how the Republic Party is a threat to American democracy. She also explains how she manages to write about insider Russian politics from thousands of miles away.Read her work at The American Interest:https://www.the-american-interest.com/v/karina-orlova/“A Show Trial, and The Death of Putin”https://www.the-american-interest.com/2019/02/04/a-show-trial-and-the-death-of-putin/“The Futile Search for a Russian Ideology”https://www.the-american-interest.com/2019/02/14/the-futile-search-for-a-russian-ideology/Support this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:Ну погоди, episode 14, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncHd3sxpEbo&t=7sОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQ

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Kevin's guest this week is Maria Baronova, a former opposition activist who now works for the state media network “Russia Today.” On this episode, Masha talks about her new job at “RT,” leaving the Russian opposition, and visiting the United States in the summer of 2018.Follow Baronova on Twitter here:https://twitter.com/ponny1Support this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:Ну погоди, episode 14, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncHd3sxpEbo&t=7sОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQHenrik Lundkvist, “Kalinka on a Balalaika,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH5znHQ9QRY

Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)

Today’s show features an interview with Olga Zeveleva, a sociologist who recently earned her doctorate at the University of Cambridge. Olga works on mobility, migration, media, and political transformation. Her dissertation is titled “The State and the Journalist: Regional Crimean Media Professionals Adapting to Change, 2013-2017,” and she’s now doing fieldwork in Tatarstan as an Oxford Russia Fellow, adding Kazan as another case study to her research. On this episode of The Russia Guy, Olga talks about life as a sociologist, journalism in Crimea and Kazan, and what nine-year-old girls should consider before taking up social science.Follow Olga on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/ozevelevaFollow Olga’s latest research here:https://research.sociology.cam.ac.uk/profile/olga-zevelevaLearn more about the Oxford Russia Fund here:http://oxfordrussia.ru/about/whoweare/Support this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:Ну погоди, episode 14, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncHd3sxpEbo&t=7sОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQHenrik Lundkvist, “Kalinka on a Balalaika,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH5znHQ9QRY

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Today’s show looks at a controversial new op-ed that appeared in The New York Times on Friday, March 29, 2019, titled “Russians Always Knew There Was No Collusion.” The subheader reads, “The Kremlin’s allies and its opponents alike have been baffled by America’s Russia obsession. Can we ever look at the U.S. the same way again?” Kevin speaks to the author of the text, Alexey Kovalev, the new investigations editor at Meduza and the author of many articles and op-eds in major news outlets, both in Russia and the West.Read the article here:https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/29/opinion/mueller-report-russia.htmlFollow Alexey on Twitter here:https://twitter.com/Alexey__KovalevSupport this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:Ну погоди, episode 14, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncHd3sxpEbo&t=7sОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQHenrik Lundkvist, “Kalinka on a Balalaika,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH5znHQ9QRY

Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)

On today’s show, Kevin spoke to Mike Eckel, one of the co-authors of an investigative report published earlier today by Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. The report is based on a 149-page file released exclusively to RFE/RL that offers what is described as “the most precise scientific description to date” about how Mikhail Lesin, the former Russian press minister, turned up dead in a Washington, D.C., hotel room in November 2015.Read the story here:https://www.rferl.org/a/lesin-autopsy-record/29824566.htmlFollow Mike's work at RFE/RL here:https://www.rferl.org/author/96267.htmlFollow him on Twitter here:https://twitter.com/Mike_EckelSupport this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:Ну погоди, episode 14, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncHd3sxpEbo&t=7sОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQ

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Today's guest on The Russia Guy is human rights activist Polina Nemirovskaya, a project coordinator at the Open Russia movement. Polina discusses how her organization operates, what hurdles it faces from police and lawmakers, and what it takes to devote your life to those fighting political repression.Follow Polina on Twitter here:https://twitter.com/polinanemLearn more about Open Russia here:https://orpravo.org/Support this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:Ну погоди, episode 14, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncHd3sxpEbo&t=7sОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQ

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Today's guest is Seva Gunitsky, an associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto. He researches how international forces like war and globalization shape democracy and domestic reforms. In this episode of The Russia Guy, we talked about growing up in the U.S. as a Russia immigrant, navigating American biases in Russia analysis, understanding the mafia as an economic response, and much more.Get a copy of Gunitsky's book, “ Aftershocks: Great Powers and Domestic Reforms in the Twentieth Century,” here:https://www.amazon.com/Aftershocks-Domestic-Twentieth-Princeton-International/dp/069117234XAnd follow the man on Twitter here:https://twitter.com/sevautSupport this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:Ну погоди, episode 14, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncHd3sxpEbo&t=7sОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQ

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This episode's guest is Aaron Schwartzbaum, the founder of BMB Russia, an indispensable daily newsletter about Russian political economy. We discussed two recent scandals in Russian political economy: (1) Rosstat's claim that Russia's GDP growth in 2018 was the biggest in the past six years, and (2) the arrest of American investment manager Michael Calvey, who was jailed on Saturday, February 16, for allegedly stealing about 37 million dollars.Follow Aaron on Twitter here:https://twitter.com/aaron_schwaSubscribe the BMB Russia here:https://bearmarketbrief.com/Follow Nick Trickett, BMB Russia's chief editor, on Twitter here:https://twitter.com/ntrickett16Support this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:Ну погоди, episode 14, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncHd3sxpEbo&t=7sОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQ

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This episode features an interview with Roman Dobrokhotov, the editor in chief of The Insider, a Russian investigative news outlet that's collaborated on key projects with Bellingcat, breaking major news stories related to the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, the Novichok poisonings in Salisbury, England, and more. He talks about the evolution of Russian journalism in the Internet age and the opportunities of reporting in a paradoxically transparent authoritarian environment.Check out The Insider (with select stories translated into English) here: https://theins.ruSupport this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:Ну погоди, episode 14, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncHd3sxpEbo&t=7sОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)