Show Notes
Today's guest is Jack Stubbs, the European cybersecurity correspondent at the news agency Reuters and previously a correspondent in Russia and Ukraine. About a week ago, on October 1, 2020, Jack authored an exclusive story at Reuters, titled “Russian Operation Masqueraded as Right-Wing News Site to Target U.S. Voters,” about people connected to the infamous Internet Research Agency — that troll factory founded by Evgeny Prigozhin — running a fake news outlet designed to target right-wing voters with inflammatory political messaging ahead of this year’s U.S. presidential election. According to sources familiar with an FBI probe, this is the right-wing version of a nearly identical project that targeted American leftists called Peace Data.
Follow Jack Stubbs on Twitter here and read his work at Reuters here.
Music and audio for "The Russia Guy": Alexandr Kuzminyh, CC BY license, "TOP 12 CARTOONS ON THE GUITAR (SOVIET CARTOONS)" Олег Анофриев, Бременские музыканты, “Говорят, мы бяки-буки” Thinking Music by Kevin MacLeod / Link / License The Bandit by Kevin MacLeod / Link / License Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kevinrothrock)
More from The Russia Guy
Kevin returns to run his mouth about recent events in the Russia-Ukraine world, and other stuff. Topics discussed here:
Today’s guest is Dr. Jade McGlynn, a specialist in Russian memory and foreign policy at the Monterey Initiative in Russian Studies and the author of two books: “The Kremlin’s Memory Makers” and “Russia’s War.” Discussed in this interview: the Kremlin’s claims that Russia is fighting an existential battle in Ukraine, how memory shapes that conversation, balancing dispassionate scholarly work and ethical advocacy, and more!
Today’s show features an interview with Jonny Tickle, a man with an incredible name and a controversial resume, given that he worked as a writer for Russia Today — RT — right up until Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February. He left the country shortly thereafter, but he’s since returned (like quite a few others), and he’s even resumed his YouTube travel vlog where he visits cities across Russia and talks about the local scene and attractions. Jonny agreed to come on The Russia Guy to talk about being back in Russia, what’s in store for him next, and what life is like in a country at war where you can’t even call it a war.
Today’s guest is Dr. Emily Holland, an assistant professor in the Russia Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College, where she teaches and researches subjects like the Cold War, Russia, energy politics, diplomacy, geopolitics, and more. Follow her on Twitter here. In the interview you’re about to hear, Dr. Holland describes her background and the nature of her job at the Naval War College before explaining the challenges and tradeoffs inherent in the West’s efforts to isolate Russia’s oil and gas industries.
Today’s guest is Dr. Marlene Laruelle, the director of Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies and the Illiberalism Studies Program at George Washington University. On this episode of The Russia Guy, Dr. Laruelle discussed her 2021 book, “Is Russia Fascist? Unraveling Propaganda East and West,” and its relevance to today’s crisis in Ukraine. We focused specifically on the book’s insights into Russian geopolitics and post-colonialism.