Jill Dougherty sits down with former US Ambassador to Russia and Bulgaria John R. Beyrle to discuss their shared foundational experiences in Soviet Russia, including as US exchange students in then-Leningrad and later as American National Exhibition guides, and how they still inform their work in journalism and diplomacy today ..read more

Ukraine isn’t the only country that’s fighting Russian influence for its democratic future. Tinatin Khidasheli, Georgia’s first female minister of defense and current Chairperson at Civic IDEA (Initiative for Democratic and Euro-Atlantic Choice), an NGO in Georgia, joins Jill Dougherty to discuss tensions between Georgia’s government and its civil society over the direction of the country’s future, including this year’s mass protests against a proposed “foreign agents” law, and expectations for Georgia’s upcoming presidential election in 2024. k ..read more

A shocking number of Kremlin opponents have been left dead or permanently injured from poisonings. During a trip to Prague in May 2023, Free Russia Foundation President and Founder Natalia Arno became one of the latest individuals to develop poisoning symptoms after speaking out against political oppression in Russia. Arno shares her harrowing story with Jill Dougherty, and the two also discuss the work of Russia’s political activists in exile, the Kremlin’s history of transnational oppression of its political opponents, and the signs of hope she sees for Russia’s democratic future ..read more

Jill Dougherty sits down with Zhanna Nemtsova to discuss her work with the Boris Nemtsov Foundation, which Zhanna founded in 2015 in Germany after her father’s assassination, and the generational gaps that have divided Russian civil society. Their conversation touched on the prevailing apathy of Russian society in the face of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, propaganda in higher education being used to advance Putin’s agenda, and why the key to Russia’s democratization lies in education reform. Show notes and episode transcript: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/audio/kennanx-episode-28-zhanna-nemtsov ..read more

Russian independent news channel TV Rain (Dozhd TV) has been operating in Latvia since June 2022, after Kremlin authorities blocked the channel as a result of its coverage of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Now TV Rain’s operation is once again in peril after on-air remarks from one of its anchors resulted in the channel losing its Latvian broadcasting license. TV Rain news director and anchor Ekaterina Kotrikadze joins Jill Dougherty to discuss these challenges and what they mean for the future of the channel ..read more

Host Jill Dougherty shares the second part of her conversations with Russian journalists — both those now in exile and those who remain in the country — about how their lives have changed after the Kremlin’s crackdown on independent media and full-scale invasion of Ukraine. She is joined by Sergey Parkhomenko, Russian journalist and Kennan Senior Advisor; Tatiana Felgenhauer and Alexander (Sasha) Plyushchev, independent journalists and former anchors for Echo Moscow Radio; Kirill Martynov, Political Editor, Novaya Gazeta Europe; Roman Dobrokhotov, Founder, The Insider; and Yevgenia Albats, Edi ..read more

Since Russia launched its war against Ukraine in February, hundreds of journalists have left their country because they felt threatened by the Kremlin's crackdown on free speech. In the latest KennanX, Jill Dougherty presents the first in a two-part series profiling Russian journalists who have fled. She is joined by The Insider Founder Roman Dobrokhotov and Riddle Russia Co-Founder Anton Barbashin as they discuss how the war in Ukraine has affected their coverage, how to report investigative journalism in a country dominated by censorship and propaganda, and why they continue to stay connecte ..read more

Host Jill Dougherty has a special announcement about the future of the KennanX podcast. Plus, we’re sharing a recent conversation between Wilson Center President Mark Green and Baroness Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s first High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, about the impact that Russia’s war in Ukraine is having on Europe and the role of Vladimir Putin. We’ll be back with new KennanX episodes in April 2022 ..read more

The standoff at the Russia-Ukraine border has reached a boiling point following the Biden and Putin video conference. Moscow is demanding major revisions to European security. In this episode of KennanX, Ambassador John Tefft – former ambassador to Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Lithuania – joins Jill to discuss Putin’s red lines and what they mean ..read more

Political discourse in Russia and the post-Soviet space is rife with conspiracy theories, as well as politicians who utilize them to gain an upper hand. On this episode of KennanX, Scott Radnitz, author of Revealing Schemes: The Politics of Conspiracy in Russia and the Post-Soviet Region, joins Jill to discuss the politics driving conspiracies in the region ..read more