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

Urbanist Davarian L. Baldwin on the dynamics between urban universities and the communities outside their walls, and his book "In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities" from Bold Type Books.

https://www.boldtypebooks.com/titles/davarian-l-baldwin/in-the-shadow-of-the-ivory-tower/9781568588919/

1312: When universities swallow cities / Davarian L. Baldwin

Abby Martin explores what's missing from coverage of Biden's announcement of the Afghanistan withdrawal. 
[More Afghanistan content below]

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WATCH our 2 new Afghanistan documentaries:
1. Afghanistan War Exposed: An Imperial Conspiracy: https://youtu.be/C3LFbOSPfrE​
2. US Marine Eyewitness - Afghanistan's Killing Fields: https://youtu.be/-thYBWf_AIM​

LISTEN to the Empire Files Podcast on Afghanistan: https://soundcloud.com/empire-files/retreat-or-con-job-the-afghanistan-withdrawal-explained-preview

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US Retreats From Afghanistan: Truth Behind The Empire’s Defeat

Great powers don’t always go great together, often viewing each other as rivals, if not enemies. After the Cold War, the United States was viewed as the last superpower standing. But not only has Russia and its nuclear arsenal stubbornly refused to go away, China has kept on rising. Now, people at the highest levels of government are trying to figure out whether China and the United States can play nice together, but whether the 21st will be the Chinese Century. Joining us to help understand the situation is Matthew Kroenig. Kroenig is both a political scientist and national security strategist at the Atlantic Council.&nbsp; He is also the author of the Return of Great Power Rivalry: Democracy Versus Autocracy from the Ancient World to the U.S. and China Matthew Kroenig. <ul><li>Recorded 8/21/20</li><li>The innovators</li><li>Innovating with government money</li><li>Where China’s labor comes from</li><li>China’s soft power strategy</li><li>A coming generational struggle</li></ul> &#10;&nbsp; <hr>See <a style='color: grey; ' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for privacy and opt-out information.

Why the U.S. May Come Out on Top Against China

How did a small movement of Jewish fanatics, devastated by the ignominious demise of their leader, rise to become the official state religion of the Roman empire, Armenia, Georgia, and Ethiopia?  We trace the dramatic rise of the new faith through three centuries of preaching, prophesy, and persecution.

image:  fresco of a woman at the 3rd-century house-church of Dura-Europos

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suggested reading:  E. Glenn Hinson, "The Early Church"

for context:
--on composition of the New Testament texts:  https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/who-wrote-the-bible-new-testament
--on the historical Jesus:  https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/the-historical-jesus

The Early Church, pt. 1 -- Christianity on the Road

After 45 Senate Republicans voted to declare his impeachment trial unconstitutional, Donald Trump is almost assured an acquittal. It marks a stunning turnaround for a man who just a few weeks ago was completely isolated and facing the prospect of jail time for seditious conspiracy. How did the Democratic Party fail so spectacularly? Will impeachment ironically be the thing that paves the way for Trump’s reentry into the political spotlight? What does this mean for the rising danger of fascism?

The Real Story: Why Impeachment Helps Trump

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

Abby Martin explains what President Biden really means by the duplicitous language in his major Feb. 4 foreign policy speech on ending the Yemen war. 

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What Everyone Missed About Biden's Double-Speak on Ending Yemen War

We discuss the work of director/action choreographer/stuntman and actor Lau Kar-leung by focusing on his directorial efforts THE 36th CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN, LEGENDARY WEAPONS OF CHINA and TIGER ON THE BEAT.

Listen to exclusive episodes at www.patreon.com/theimportantcinemaclub

Check out Justin's other podcast THE BAY STREET VIDEO PODCAST (@thebaystreetvideopodcast) and NO SUCH THING AS A BAD MOVIE (@nosuchthingasabadmovie) as well as Will's other podcast MICHAEL AND US (@michael-and-us)

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#246 - No One Does It Better Than Lau Kar-leung

It’s been a long time since the sun set on the British Empire and many institutions in British society have changed a great deal. In some ways, the British Army is the exception - a living linkage between imperial great power status and the current post-colonial European nation. In other ways, like the US military, the British Army has been comprehensively transformed by the long campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11.&nbsp; The way the British Army has altered - and also failed to react - over the last two decades is the subject of the new book The Changing of the Guard: The British Army Since 9/11. Here to talk about it is the book’s author Simon Akam. Akam is a journalist whose work has appeared basically everywhere, including Reuters, the Economist, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Outside, Bloomberg Businessweek and GQ. &#10;&nbsp; <hr>See <a style='color: grey; ' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for privacy and opt-out information.

How 9/11 Changed the British Military

From Lubbock Texas, after the black-out cold storm, scientist Katherine Hayhoe talks record billion dollar climate disasters.  Her PBS YouTube series is “Global Weirding”.  From Bergen Norway, lead scientist Christoph Heinze warns about three OTHER crisis developing unseen below the seas.  His new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy is ominously titled: “The quiet crossing of ocean tipping points”.

1295: Experiments in medium design / Keller Easterling

This Is Hell!

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