The Russia Guy

If you ever read about Russia’s space program, you’ll likely recognize today’s guest: Matt Bodner joins the podcast to talk about his work as a journalist in Moscow. Matt’s reporting has appeared in The Moscow Times, Defense News, Space News Magazine, The Telegraph, and many other outlets. He was at the Vostochny Cosmodrome for a Soyuz rocket launch.So what are you going to hear about in this interview? Matt talked about how he got into reporting on Russia’s space program and its military, and why on Earth he got interested in Russia in the first place. He also discussed life as a foreign correspondent in Moscow, the ways journalists break into the field, and what how Russians and Americans annoy him in their own special ways.Follow Matt on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/mattb0401Read his spaceport piece here: https://spacenews.com/the-long-road-to-vostochny-inside-russias-newest-launch-facility/Support this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:“Polyushka Polye” by The Red Army Choir, www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2YlbiyiuMcОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQ“Your Health,” Soyuzmultfilm, 1965, Ivan Aksenchuk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFKxyA81TtM

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Today, we’re welcoming back Alexey Kovalev, the managing editor of Coda Story’s Russian-language edition and the brains behind the propaganda-busting website Noodle Remover. Alexey recently got back from a whirlwind tour of the United States, as a 2018 World Press Institute fellow. Kevin desperately wanted to know what he thought of his homeland, and Alexey was kind enough to come on the podcast and share his thoughts about America today.So what did they talk about in this interview? Alexey recalled his experiences in eight major U.S. cities: Minneapolis and St. Paul, Washington, D.C., New York City, Miami, Austin, Chicago, San Francisco, and Denver. He talked about meeting with American journalists throughout the trip, learning about U.S. urban grime, poverty, violence, and more. And of course Kevin asked him how Americans treated him, in the age of Donald Trump, when they found out he was a visiting Russian journalist.Following Alexey on Twitter here:https://twitter.com/Alexey__Kovalev/ And check out his many media projects:https://worldpressinstitute.org/author/alexey-kovalev/ https://noodleremover.news/ http://codaru.com/war-on-reason/ Support this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:“Polyushka Polye” by The Red Army Choir, www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2YlbiyiuMcОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQ“Your Health,” Soyuzmultfilm, 1965, Ivan Aksenchuk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFKxyA81TtM

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Today the show welcomes back Neil Hauer, a security analyst focused on Russia, the North Caucasus, and Syria. Neil was recently in Ingushetia, and he witnessed some of the protests against a controversial agreement to hand over nearly a tenth of the republic to Chechnya.So what did we talk about in this interview? Neil gave some background on Ingushetia’s territorial losses over the past century, explaining why the agreement with Chechnya today has touched such a nerve. He also explained how wild-man Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov fits into all this, and talked about what this means for the entire North Caucasus. And of course he shared some observations from on the ground, having visited the epicenter of what was probably Russia’s most surprising, if under-reported, protest movements in the past six years.Follow Neil on Twitter here:https://twitter.com/NeilPHauer Support this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:“Polyushka Polye” by The Red Army Choir, www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2YlbiyiuMcОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQ“Your Health,” Soyuzmultfilm, 1965, Ivan Aksenchuk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFKxyA81TtMSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)

On today’s show, Kevin welcomes Paul Massaro and Rachel Bauman, two policy advisers at the U.S. Helsinki Commission. Paul works on economic and environmental issues, focusing on anti-corruption initiatives, sanctions, and more, all across the 57 states in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Rachel works specifically on Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and the three Baltic states.So what did they talk about in this interview? They started out with what exactly the U.S. Helsinki Commission is, and also discussed what it’s like to work for a U.S. government agency that regularly confronts Russian officials about their human rights abuses and transnational corruption. Both Rachel and Paul also talked about how they got into this business, and what it’s like making a living in this world.Follow these two on Twitter here:https://twitter.com/rkbauman https://twitter.com/apmassaro3Read more about them at the U.S. Helsinki Commission's website here:https://www.csce.gov/about-csce/staff/rachel-bauman-policy-advisor https://www.csce.gov/about-csce/staff/paul-massaro-iii-policy-advisorSupport this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:“Polyushka Polye” by The Red Army Choir, www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2YlbiyiuMcОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQ“Your Health,” Soyuzmultfilm, 1965, Ivan Aksenchuk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFKxyA81TtMSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)

Today's guest is Alina Polyakova, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, an adjunct professor of European studies at Johns Hopkins University, and a specialist in far-right populism and nationalism, and Russian foreign policy.Alina and Kevin discussed who’s to blame for Donald Trump’s election, how you take a sociology doctorate and become a Washington think tank expert, and what life is like in the hustle and bustle of the American capital. She explained why she didn’t really like Keith Gessen’s “The Quiet Americans” piece in The New York Times Magazine this May, and talked about Washington’s lack of strategic thinking, when it comes to Russia.Follow Alina on Twitter here:https://twitter.com/apolyakovaAnd follow her work at the Brookings Institution here:https://www.brookings.edu/experts/alina-polyakova/Support this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:“Polyushka Polye” by The Red Army Choir, www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2YlbiyiuMcОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQ“Your Health,” Soyuzmultfilm, 1965, Ivan Aksenchuk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFKxyA81TtMSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)

Today’s guest is David Klion, a writer in Brooklyn whose work has appeared in The Nation, The New York Times, The Guardian, BuzzFeed, The Baffler, and many other publications. In mid-September, the website Coda published a story by David, titled “Russia, Hollywood’s Mirror,” where he examines Russia tropes in American movies over the past six centuries. Here’s the opening of the article: “If Russians didn’t exist, Hollywood would have to invent them. In a sense, Hollywood has.”So what did David and Kevin talk about in this interview? They go through a whole laundry list of American movies about Russia, focusing on favorites like Rocky IV, Red Heat, GoldenEye, and others. David talks about what kind of Hollywood movies he’d like to see more of, and discussed at length how popular entertainment both feeds off and informs perceptions when it comes to how Russians and Americans think about each other.Follow David on Twitter:https://twitter.com/DavidKlionRead his Coda story on Hollywood and Russia:https://codastory.com/disinformation-crisis/rewriting-history/russia-hollywood-mirrorSupport this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:“Polyushka Polye” by The Red Army Choir, www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2YlbiyiuMcОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQ“Your Health,” Soyuzmultfilm, 1965, Ivan Aksenchuk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFKxyA81TtM

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Today's guest is Amie Ferris-Rotman, the Moscow correspondent for The Washington Post, and a veteran reporter on Russia, who’s previously worked for Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Vogue, The Atlantic, Politico, and Foreign Policy. She’s also covered Afghanistan, and she was awarded the John S. Knight Fellowship at Stanford University, where she developed and founded the “Sahar Speaks” project, which mentors and trains aspiring women journalists in Afghanistan.On September 20, the website Coda published a story by Amie about how Vladimir Putin maintains a reputation as a conservative moral leader, while simultaneously supporting women’s abortion rights. Kevin asked Amie if she thinks the main takeaway from her research is a positive or negative outlook for reproductive rights in Russia, and what other contortions Putin supporters need to make to reconcile his various policy positions. They also discussed the difference between American and British reporting, and the prospects for civic activism in Russia’s more far-flung corners.Follow Amie on Twitter:https://twitter.com/Amie_FRFollow her work at The Washington Post:https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/amie-ferris-rotmanRead her recent story about reproductive rights in Russia:https://codastory.com/disinformation-crisis/traditional-values/putin-prochoice-championLearn about her project, “Sahar Speaks”:http://www.saharspeaks.org/our-story/Support this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:“Polyushka Polye” by The Red Army Choir, www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2YlbiyiuMcОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQ“Your Health,” Soyuzmultfilm, 1965, Ivan Aksenchuk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFKxyA81TtM

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Today's show features an interview with Sean Guillory, the scholar behind the popular Sean’s Russia Blog and the SRB Podcast, a weekly podcast on Eurasian politics, history, and culture. Sean is also the digital-scholarship curator in the Russian and East European Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh, and he’s an occasional columnist at Jacobin Magazine, where he writes about Russian left-wing politics. In this interview, Kevin asks Sean what he makes of American Russophobia today and whether he thinks it’s fair when people compare it to the McCarthyism of yesteryear. He talks about how he got his start as a blogger, and what he thinks of academia today, when it comes to the study of Russia. Also, he discusses U.S. media coverage of Russia and the anti-Kremlin opposition, and explains what he thinks journalists generally get right about the culture, and where a lot of reporting comes up short.Follow Sean on Twitter:https://twitter.com/seansrussiablogRead his blog and listen to his podcast here:https://seansrussiablog.org/Support his podcast here:https://www.patreon.com/seansrussiablogRead Sean's Jacobin articles here:https://www.jacobinmag.com/author/sean-guillorySupport this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:“Polyushka Polye” by The Red Army Choir, www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2YlbiyiuMcОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQ“Your Health,” Soyuzmultfilm, 1965, Ivan Aksenchuk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFKxyA81TtMSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)

Kevin continues his interview series with professionals in the field of Russia expertise. Today's guest is Dr. Mark Galeotti, a senior researcher at the Institute of International Relations Prague and the coordinator of its Center for European Security. Check out Dr. Galeotti's latest book: “The Vory: Russia's Super Mafia,” released this May by Yale University Presshttps://www.amazon.com/Vory-Russias-Super-Mafia/dp/0300186827In this interview, Kevin asks Mark several big questions, like what are the most important developing events and stories in Russia today? Will Putin stick around past 2024? Should we keep thinking about the Kremlin in terms of towers and clans? And Mark also talked a bit about himself, how he got into “the Russia game,” what was so special about his introduction to Russia, and how he manages to juggle so many different roles, while maintaining a sane private life.Follow Mark on Twitter:https://twitter.com/MarkGaleottiSupport this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:“Polyushka Polye” by The Red Army Choir, www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2YlbiyiuMcОлег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQ

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On today’s show, Kevin continues his series of interviews with journalists working on Russia. This episode features Carl Schreck, a senior correspondent for RFE/RL and a veteran reporter who’s worked in Moscow, from the States, and from Prague, where he’s based now. Carl and Kevin talked about what makes good news stories, how you break into this field, what it’s like to cut your teeth on Russia’s crime beat, and much more.Follow Carl here on Twitter:https://twitter.com/carlschreckSubscribe to his feed at RFE/RL here:https://www.rferl.org/author/93650.htmlSupport this very podcast here:www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic:*“Polyushka Polye” by The Red Army Choir, www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2YlbiyiuMc*Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-3wC7gkMDQ

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