This week’s podcast is a recording of an event Navalny and Next: Possibilities, Prognosis and Perceptions in Russia I hosted a few weeks ago. This event was sponsored by the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, Russia Matters, and the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. 

After a botched attempt to murder Alexei Navalny in August 2020, the Kremlin has decided to sentence him to over two years in prison upon the oppositionist’s return to Russia in January. Navalny responded with a bombshell video about the corruption around “Putin’s Palace.” Unsanctioned, mass protests in the two capitals and tens of provincial cities followed. The protesters were met with mass, indiscriminate arrests, and police violence. The political ante in this back-and-forth has certainly risen but to what end? 

Russia has experienced the ebbs and flows of protest on the federal and local level for years. And while each eruption quickly elicits a sense that Russia is at a turning point, more cautious and sober assessments follow in the weeks and months after. So, is what we’re now seeing something new or more of the same? What do the protests suggest about Russian society, politics, and the state of Putin’s power? Especially, as Russia will hold parliamentary elections in September.  

Guests:

Ilya Budraitskis is political and cultural writer. He currently teaches in the Moscow School for Social and Economic Sciences and the School of Design at the High School of Economics. Budraitskis is currently a member of the editorial board of Moscow Art Magazine and host of the Russian language podcast Political Diary. His book Dissidents among Dissidents was awarded the Andrey Belyi prize in 2017. His most recent book We All Live in the World Huntington Invented (2020) treats modern Russian conservatism. 

Svetlana Erpyleva is a sociologist, a researcher with Public Sociology Laboratory, Center for Independent Social Research in Russia, and a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki. Her research is focused on protest movements and collective action, political involvement, political socialization, youth and children’s political participation and cognition in Russia and abroad. She’s written for a number of academic journals and Russian and international media. 

Greg Yudin is a Professor of Political Philosophy at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences. His research focuses on the political theory of democracy with the special emphasis on public opinion polls as a technology of representation and governance in contemporary politics. His book Public Opinion: The Power of Numbers was published in Russian by European University Press in 2020. He is a regular contributor to several Russian media outlets.


Navalny and Next

Writer and filmmaker Juliet Jacques (@zinovievletter) returns to the podcast after a year to pick up where we left off last time; is Sir Keith Rodney "Kier" Starmer QC the worst political leader of all time, or simply the worst human being? Produced by Sarah Sahim @hikikonormie.

Reel Politik

Episode 195 - All Keefed Out (ft. Juliet Jacques)

In late March PTO spoke to Adam Tooze whilst he was in New York as the Covid19 crisis was escalating. In today's episode we return to some of the issues we discussed back then, including the pandemic's role in the rise of China, the increasing entwinement of government and private corporations in the United States and Europe and the return of austerity politics.

Teaser - PTO Extra! Adam Tooze on China and the US Democrats and the return of austerity politics

London is red. In both 2017 and 2019, the capital city went overwhelmingly red – a story repeated in other English cities, but especially pronounced in London. Yet the left has rarely had much interest in London's socialist story, preferring to deride the capital as a decadent seat of power or a parasitical drain on the rest of the country. But London has a deep, long history as a laboratory of struggle and a crucible of socialist experiment – and once had a city government so radical that Thatcher had to abolish it. Owen Hatherley joins James Butler to argue that it's time to reclaim the Red Metropolis. Red Metropolis is available from Repeater Books now. https://novaramedia.com/?p=27841

Novara Media Podcast

#NovaraFM: Red Flag, South Bank

Aurelien Mondon and Aaron Winter join PTO to talk about whether Joe Biden's election victory represents a comprehensive repudiation of Trumpism, what we can expect from the Republican Party after Trump, and we also chatted about the significance of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

#105 The mainstreaming of the far right w/ Aurelien Mondon & Aaron Winter

In the final episode of the second season of #RedHacks Joana Ramiro speaks to Laurie Macfarlane about the necessity of an economic journalism that challenges the status quo.

#RedHacks - Economic journalism and the end of neoliberalism w/ Laurie Macfarlane

The episode we should've done 4 years ago! After much soul searching, the boys get together to go over the basics of Marxism. We talk about Marx's life and the historical context, have a go at explaining dialectics, historical materialism, classes, freedom, alienation, the state, and of course proletarian revolution. Enjoy, comrades!

85. Deso does theory: introduction to Marxism.

2021 marks a decade since Aaron Bastani and James Butler started the radio show which would eventually become #NovaraFM, and which would give birth to Novara Media. To mark the start of the new year - a year in which all the crises which prompted the show's creation are more visible and more pressing than they were a decade ago - join James for a trip through just some of the twists and turns, hidden gems, prophetic foresights and sudden surprises in the Novara archives. https://novaramedia.com/?p=29568

#NovaraFM: Ten Years of #NovaraFM

Every election we hear of the "care crisis" as if it's about to explode. But care affects us all, and not just in election cycles. And rather than an explosion, the reality of care in the UK looks more like the slow and gradual erosion of the fabric of social provision. But why is care in crisis? Who does care work in Britain? Why are big corporations and financiers so interested in it? How does this all track back to the financial crisis? And who will take care of us when we need it? Emma Dowling joins James Butler to explain. 

Emma Dowling's book, The Care Crisis: What Caused It and How Can We End It?, is out now from Verso Books. Some of the voices at the beginning of the show are drawn from interviews made last year by Novara Media reporters. You can hear them in full in our deep dive into care work, politics and organising: 'Tired From the Heart': Voices of the Care Sector.

   https://novaramedia.com/?p=29891

#NovaraFM: Capital, Care and Crisis

Writer Keller Easterling on new ways of seeing the world and its possibilities, and her book "Medium Design: Knowing How to Work on the World" from Verso Books.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3245-medium-design

1295: Experiments in medium design / Keller Easterling

Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate​

After The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal reported on newly leaked documents exposing a massive UK government propaganda campaign against Russia, Twitter added an unprecedented warning label that the material "may have been obtained through hacking." Although Twitter may have intended to restrict the article, the warning had the opposite effect: it quickly went viral. 

Max Blumenthal and Aaron Maté discuss the suppression effort and the damning UK government leaks at the heart of it. After years of fear-mongering about Russian interference in Western democracies, these UK government files expose a sprawling propaganda effort that explicitly aims to "weaken" Russia. The documents reveal that this propaganda campaign has also enlisted major media outlets Reuters and the BBC, as well as the NATO member state-funded website Bellingcat. 

Guest: Max Blumenthal, editor of The Grayzone and author of "The Management of Savagery."

As leaks expose UK op to 'weaken' Russia, suppression of Grayzone reporting backfires

A podcast on radical politics, critical theory, and history. Hosted by Alex Doherty.

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother

Contact: politicstheoryother@gmail.com

#RedHacks - Economic journalism and the end of neoliberalism w/ Laurie Macfarlane

Politics Theory Other