The Russia Guy

On today’s show, Kevin welcomes back Aric Toler to learn more about the August 31 assassination of Alexander Zakharchenko, the separatist leader of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, or DNR. What path led Zakharchenko to this grisly end, and who planted the bomb that killed him? An open-source intelligence expert at Bellingcat and the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, Aric Toler follows eastern Ukraine’s separatists as closely as anybody.Follow Aric at Twitter:https://twitter.com/AricTolerContribute your hard-earned cash to this podcast: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-3wC7gkMDQSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)

On this episode of The Russia Guy, Kevin talks to freelance writer and Russia watcher Dustin Giebel, who was recently the target of a defamatory blog post by a #resistance freedom fighter named Jay McKenzie. The screed was posted on Medium and promoted by information-warfare darlings like lobbyist Molly McKew and former CIA agent John Sipher — two public figures Giebel has criticized in the past.Geibel talked about life as a Russia watcher at a time when strangers are happy to pick apart your biography and harass your family, all in the name of “winning the fight.”Read the screed:http://archive.is/1iklQRead Giebel's response:https://medium.com/@DustinGiebel/join-us-or-your-russian-controlled-assets-9df9b26897dFollow Giebel on Twitter:https://twitter.com/dustingiebelContribute your hard-earned cash to this podcast:https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockMusic featured in this episode:“Serial Killer“ by John Bartmann, http://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/serial-killer“Building Tension” by eddy, http://freemusicarchive.org/music/eddy/srs_1647/03_Building_Tension_1270“Polyushka Polye” by The Red Army Choir, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2YlbiyiuMc

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Kevin reads the full text of a new investigative report by Meduza’s Daniil Turovsky about how Russia’s war in Georgia sparked Moscow’s modern-day recruitment of criminal hackers. The story is timely not just because we’re currently marking the 10-year anniversary of the Russo-Georgian war, but also because we’re still living in a world dominated by news about Russian election interference, cyber-threats, and more. This is an important story, but most of the reporting has happened in the United States, where the victims are located and the fallout has occurred. Turovsky’s new report is worth reading because it offers some insight into the other side of things: the world of the hackers who were likely mobilized for Moscow’s efforts in 2016. Read the text for yourself here, and share it with your pals:https://meduza.io/en/feature/2018/08/07/it-s-our-time-to-serve-the-motherlandIf you enjoy this podcast, please consider making a pledge at Patreon, where you can send Kevin money for all his grand efforts. Many thanks to the listeners already ponying up.www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockOpening music: Assmack by Podington Bearhttp://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Haplessly_Happy/AssmackClosing tune: Бременские музыканты (1969), Олег АнофриевSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)

On today’s show, Kevin talks to to Anastasia Karimova, a former activist and journalist in Russia. Today, she’s a graduate student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in the United States. Anastasia’s personal history is fascinating in its own right, but it's especially interesting now, in the aftermath of the arrest of Maria Butina.Kevin asked Anastasia about finding her way into and out of Russian opposition politics. What were the old days like? What’s the world of protesting become today? She also talked about working for “Kommersant” and losing faith in Russia’s news media. And finally she talked about studying in the U.S. as a Russian person, putting Maria Butina’s alleged activities in some context.If you enjoy this podcast, please consider making a pledge at Patreon, where you can send Kevin money for all his grand efforts. Many thanks to the listeners already ponying up.www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)

Today Kevin will look at the criminal charges against Maria Butina, announced on July 16 by the Justice Department. What are the charges? What kind of dirt does the FBI have on this woman? What's Butina’s history in Russia? Why is she a foreign agent and not a “spy”?Read Meduza's deep dive on Butina: “Meet Maria Butina, the FBI’s Russian gun nut undeclared foreign agent”https://meduza.io/en/feature/2018/07/18/meet-maria-butina-the-fbi-s-russian-gun-nut-undeclared-foreign-agentFollow Darina Gribova (who kindly voices Maria Butina in this episode's transcript readings) on Twitter at https://twitter.com/darina_griIf you enjoy this podcast, please consider making a pledge at Patreon, where you can send Kevin money for all his grand efforts. Many thanks to the listeners already ponying up.www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock

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On the evening of July 4, 2018, Russian Internet users realized that the search engine Yandex had been indexing a surprising array of information stored on Google Docs, including files containing passwords, credit card numbers, and corporate documents. Yandex’s press service says the company’s actions were perfectly legitimate, but within hours of Wednesday’s discovery the search engine stopped producing any hyperlinks to Google Docs. In this episode of the podcast, Kevin considers the following three questions: How could this leak have happened? Is anybody at fault here? What kind of information was leaked?Read the whole story at Meduza: “Dirty public secrets: Yandex leaks internal Google Docs apparently shared by Russian banks, state officials, and Internet trolls”https://meduza.io/en/feature/2018/07/05/dirty-public-secretsIf you enjoy this podcast, please consider making a pledge at Patreon, where you can send Kevin money for all his grand efforts. Many thanks to the listeners already ponying up.https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock

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Today’s show addresses the recent events surrounding the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, better known as “Shaninka,” which just lost its state accreditation, following an inspection by Russia’s Federal Education and Science Supervision Agency (Rosobrnadzor). Inspectors claim that the school is in violation of several state education standards. The agency’s report says Shaninka’s undergraduate and graduate programs fail in many areas to maintain “professional competence corresponding to the designated professional activities.” In this episode, Kevin speaks to three people familiar with the school and Russia’s social sciences: Grigory Yudin, the codirector of Shaninka’s MA program in political philosophy; Armen Aramyan, a student in Shaninka’s political philosophy department; and Olga Zeveleva, graduate of the Higher School of Economics, PhD researcher in sociology at the University of Cambridge.Read Meduza's coverage of this story:‘This whole farce would make a decent hands-on course of its own’: Shaninka’s social sciences dean discusses the school’s loss of Russian accreditation*https://meduza.io/en/feature/2018/06/22/this-whole-farce-would-make-a-decent-hands-on-course-of-its-ownRegulators have revoked their accreditation of the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, one of Russia's last major private colleges*https://meduza.io/en/feature/2018/06/22/regulators-have-revoked-their-accreditation-of-the-moscow-school-of-social-and-economic-sciences-one-of-russia-s-last-major-private-collegesIf you enjoy this podcast, please consider making a pledge at Patreon, where you can send Kevin money for all his grand efforts. Many thanks to the listeners already ponying up.https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrockSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)

On today’s show, Kevin reviews the pension reform proposal slipped into Russia’s news agenda last week, just as the country’s attention turned to a certain soccer tournament. After summarizing the proposed reforms, Kevin gets some feedback about the plan from a very special guest, his eight-year-old daughter.So what are you going to learn about on today’s show? The Russian government wants to raise the country’s retirement age (from 55 to 63 for women, and from 60 to 65 for men), but how do they intend to do that? How are the authorities communicating this policy initiative to the public? Where’s Putin in all this, and what have the masses had to say about this momentous reform proposal? And what does an eight-year-old American girl think about all this?Catch up on Meduza's coverage of Russian pension reform here:*https://meduza.io/en/feature/2018/06/18/officials-vow-to-raise-the-retirement-age-the-kremlin-fears-protests-and-labor-unions-are-fuming-this-is-russia-s-pension-reform*https://meduza.io/en/cards/russia-is-raising-its-retirement-age-how-and-whyIf you enjoy this podcast, please consider making a pledge at Patreon, where you can send Kevin money for all his grand efforts. Many thanks to the listeners already ponying up.https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock

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Howdy, folks! It’s Wednesday, June 13, and we’re hours away from the kickoff of the next FIFA World Cup, which is being hosted in Russia this year. The next month will turn much of the world’s attention to Russia, which means this is a good opportunity to shine a light on the country’s social issues. The last time a sporting event did this was the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, and back then many in the United States suddenly cared very deeply about LGBT rights in Russia. This year, it’s more of a buffet for haters, with Crimea, Syria, eastern Ukraine, and so much more from which to choose. So what are you going to learn about on today’s episode of the podcast? First, Kevin talks about a recent scandal to hit Facebook where a prominent bank executive shared her controversial hiring tips. Then he reviews the practice of “Slavs-only” hiring and housing policies. He looks at cases of ageism, homophobia, and sexism, and wraps up with a summary of the legal challenges to proving discrimination in Russia. This podcast episode is based on a report by Anna Valtseva published by Meduza. Read it in English here:https://meduza.io/en/feature/2018/06/12/slavs-onlyIf you enjoy this podcast, please consider making a pledge at Patreon, where you can send Kevin money for all his grand efforts. Many thanks to the listeners already ponying up.https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock

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This episode of The Russia Guy takes place a week after the staged murder of Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, who was dead to the world for almost 24 hours, from May 29 to May 30, until he was gloriously resurrected by Ukraine’s National Security Agency, which revealed that his killing had been a hoax apparently designed to obtain a hit list with the names of 47 prominent Ukrainian and Russian journalists. The hired hitman was in on the sting operation, and the man arrested for hiring him — Boris German — says he was actually working for Ukrainian counterintelligence. This episode isn’t about the investigative drama behind Babchenko’s murder hoax, however, but the consequences of lying to the public and the media about the death of a prominent journalist. To learn more about the significance of this deception, Kevin spoke to Natalia Roudakova, a cultural anthropologist working in the field of political communication and comparative media studies. Natalia is the author of a new book called “Losing Pravda: Ethics and the Press in Post-Truth Russia.”So what are you going to learn about on today’s episode of The Russia Guy? Kevin asked Natalia to put the Babchenko murder hoax in the context of Ukraine and Russia’s Soviet legacy. She explained what truth in journalism actually is — how it’s constructed and understood in different societies. And she discussed why many journalists in Russia and especially Ukraine feel betrayed and manipulated by the Ukrainian authorities’ decision to lie about Babchenko’s murder. Check out Roudakova’s book, “Losing Pravda: Ethics and the Press in Post-Truth Russia,” at Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Losing-Pravda-Ethics-Post-Truth-Russia/dp/1316629775If you enjoy this podcast, please consider showing your support with a pledge at Patreon, where you can contribute as much or as little as you like. I’d like to thank those in the audience who are already pitching in.https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock

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