The Naked Pravda

It’s a tense moment for Ukraine. The optimism that followed Ukraine’s early successes on the battlefield in 2022 started to fade last summer as its counteroffensive failed to achieve a breakthrough. By late 2023, Ukraine’s then-commander-in-chief said the war had reached a “stalemate” — and by the start of the spring, things were looking even worse, with high-ranking Ukrainian officers warning a collapse of the front lines could be imminent without more weapons from Washington. In mid-April, U.S. lawmakers finally passed a $60-billion aid package, buying Ukraine some time and some hope. But Ukraine’s defense still faces major headwinds, and Russian forces have continued gradually advancing along various sections of the front line in recent weeks. Amid this enormous uncertainty, a new report from the International Crisis Group titled “Ukraine: How to Hold the Line” aims to distill the lessons of the past year for Ukraine and its backers. According to Simon Schlegel, the group’s senior Ukraine analyst, if Ukraine and its partners take these lessons into account, Russia’s aggression is “likely to fail” — but applying them will be anything but easy. Schlegel joined The Naked Pravda to discuss Crisis Group’s recommendations for Kyiv and its supporters and the stakes for the wider region if Ukraine fails to hold the line against Russia. Timestamps for this episode: (1:33) Stakes for Ukraine and Europe(6:41) Western military aid: Incrementalism and its impact(9:47) European allies: Preparedness and challenges(12:25) Advanced weapons systems: Training and deployment issues(16:59) Planning for contingencies: Ukraine’s efforts and limitations(20:34) Negotiation prospects(24:54) Putin’s mixed signals: Peace talks and nuclear threatsКак поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

A landmark murder trial in Kazakhstan has captivated the nation, shedding light on domestic violence. The role of social media, impact of 'Saltanat's law', and broader issues of abuse are discussed. Activists share personal stories and call for systemic changes to combat violence against women.

Catherine Wanner discusses Russia's targeting of evangelical Christians in Ukraine, highlighting the persecution faced by Protestants. The podcast explores the challenges of practicing faith in Russian-occupied territories, the efforts to counter Russian propaganda, and the impact of disinformation on US political views.

It’s strange days recently at Russia’s Defense Ministry. Amid the replacement of the agency’s head, police have brought large-scale bribery charges against at least two senior officials in the Defense Ministry, raising questions about the state of corruption in Russia’s military and the Kremlin’s approach to the phenomenon in wartime.  Also earlier this month, the American Political Science Review published relevant new research by political scientist David Szakonyi, an assistant professor at George Washington University and a co-founder of the Anti-Corruption Data Collective. In the article, titled “Corruption and Co-Optation in Autocracy: Evidence from Russia,” Dr. Szakonyi explores if corrupt State Duma deputies “govern differently” and tries to establish what the governing costs of such corruption might be. The methodology he uses will be familiar to The Naked Pravda’s listeners who know the techniques of anti-corruption activists like the researchers at Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation. Dr. Szakonyi joins this week’s podcast to discuss his findings in the context of a major “anti-corruption moment” for Russia’s Armed Forces. Timestamps for this episode: (3:26) Is this a story about corrupt politicians writ large or specifically in authoritarian states?(4:55) Explaining the paper’s methodology(13:09) The demographics of State Duma corruption(14:21) How the Kremlin co-opts corrupt officials and even welcomes them into politics(17:35) The State Duma as a “rubber stamp” legislature(19:53) “High politics” and “low politics”(21:32) The role of Russia’s security services(23:34) Exhaustion with anti-corruption revelationsКак поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

The leadup to voting this November will renew fears in the United States about Russian malign influence. That means more paranoia from politicians, more alarming op-eds and white papers from the institutes created and funded to draw attention to foreign disinformation, and more mutual suspicions among ordinary people on social media, where journalists and pundits often draw their anecdotal conclusions about popular opinion. This week, for a skeptical view of the foreign disinformation threat in America, The Naked Pravda welcomes Gavin Wilde, an adjunct faculty member at the Alperovitch Institute, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and a former director for Russia, Baltic, and Caucasus Affairs at the U.S. National Security Council. Together with Olga Belogolova, Lee Foster, and Thomas Rid, Wilde recently coauthored “Don’t Hype the Disinformation Threat: Downplaying the Risk Helps Foreign Propagandists — but So Does Exaggerating It” in Foreign Affairs. About a month earlier, he also wrote an article in the Texas National Security Review, titled “From Panic to Policy: The Limits of Foreign Propaganda and the Foundations of an Effective Response.” In this week’s episode, Wilde talked about both of these essays. Timestamps for this episode: (3:51) Talking to those who believe that foreign disinformation threatens to undo U.S. democracy(7:32) The profit incentives behind counter-disinformation work(10:43) Shifting geopolitical adversaries in counter-disinformation work(13:26) Cognitive information threats(16:56) Deconversion from the ‘Period of Panic’(20:12) Hard-science methodologies and ontologies(22:49) When does downplaying foreign disinformation become dangerous?(25:23) The challenges of U.S. partisan subjectivityКак поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

Over the past few weeks, many in the think-tank community have argued about the negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv in the first two months of the full-scale invasion, following an article published on April 16 in Foreign Affairs, titled “The Talks That Could Have Ended the War in Ukraine: A Hidden History of Diplomacy That Came Up Short — but Holds Lessons for Future Negotiations,” by Samuel Charap, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, and Sergey Radchenko, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Europe. In their article, Charap and Radchenko acknowledge that today’s prospects for negotiations “appear dim and relations between the parties are nearly nonexistent,” but they argue that the “mutual willingness” of both Putin and Zelensky in March and April 2022 “to consider far-reaching concessions to end the war” suggest that these two leaders “might well surprise everyone again in the future.” Charap and Radchenko joined The Naked Pravda to talk about this largely forgotten diplomacy, as well as the reactions to their research and what it might reveal in the years ahead. Timestamps for this episode: (2:27) Summary of the Foreign Affairs article(4:46) Entertaining the idea that Russia negotiated in good faith(7:41) If Putin was open to concessions during early setbacks, could the West hope for leverage again?(12:51) Criticism from Poland’s think-tank community(15:13) Lessons and recommendations for tomorrow’s parallel-track diplomacy?(20:40) The biggest surprises in this research(26:46) The shape of a possible peace to comeКак поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно

An investigation reveals Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov's deteriorating health due to pancreatic necrosis and COVID-19. Speculations on his failing health, surgeries, and weight loss. Potential successors and power dynamics in Chechnya discussed. Controversial incidents and PR stunts to protect Kadyrov's family. Lack of viable successors, declining health, and PR tactics to maintain a strong image examined.

The podcast explores the economic impact of labor migration from Central Asian countries to Russia, highlighting the discrimination faced by migrant workers. It discusses Russia's dependency on migrant labor, the complexities of migration policies under Putin, and the relationship between migration and extremism. The implications of a recent terror attack in Russia on migration laws and the challenges faced by migrants in Russia are also examined.

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich discusses the Russian FSB's involvement in recent events like failed terror prevention and crackdowns on dissent. The FSB's ties to Putin and its role in shaping policies in Russia and beyond are explored. The evolution of corruption within Russian intelligence agencies post-Soviet collapse is also highlighted, along with Russia's technological capabilities and counter-terrorism dynamics with the US.

It’s been seven weeks since a local branch of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service published a brief news post about the death of opposition leader Alexey Navalny. “He went for a walk, felt sick, collapsed unconscious, and couldn’t be resuscitated.” Russian officials would later insist that Navalny died of natural causes — his mother was told that he succumbed to “sudden death syndrome.” In mid-March, while celebrating his claim on a fifth presidential term, Vladimir Putin finally uttered Navalny’s name in public but only to dance on his grave, claiming that he was ready to trade him off to the West, provided he never came back. “But unfortunately, what happened happened. What can you do? That’s life,” said Putin. This week, The Naked Pravda looks back at Navalny’s career in politics and ahead to the political future of his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, by speaking to two of the people most responsible for educating the English-speaking world about his work: filmmaker Daniel Roher, whose documentary on Navalny won an Oscar last year, and journalist Julia Ioffe, who was one of the first Western reporters to write about Navalny and who’s tracked him and his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, in numerous articles for more a decade, profiling them in stories for The New Yorker and Vanity Fair. Ioffe is also the author of the forthcoming book “Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy,” now available for preorder. Timestamps for this episode: (1:55) How Daniel Roher started filming Team Navalny(10:15) Roher’s goals when making the “Navalny” documentary(11:51) Choosing a literary trope for the Navalny story(15:02) Did anyone try to talk Navalny out of returning to Moscow?(19:39) Filming Navalny’s nationalism(22:37) Rethinking the film after Navalny’s death(24:21) Julia Ioffe remembers meeting Alexey Navalny for the first time(29:47) Ioffe reviews Navalny’s views on nationalism and Ukraine(36:15) Looking ahead to Yulia Navalnaya and back at past revolutionary womenКак поддержать нашу редакцию — даже если вы в России и вам очень страшно