KennanX

Russia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that the Kremlin’s approach to public health is inextricable from its national security goals. Jill Dougherty and Nataliya Shok discuss the evolution of public health policy in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Sputnik V vaccine as a foreign policy tool, and what policymakers should know about Russian influence in global heal...

The National Security Archive at George Washington University is the largest independent non-government collection of declassified US documents and a goldmine of primary resources for scholars of US-Russia relations. Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, and Dr. Svetlana Savranskaya, a senior analyst and director of the Archive’s Russia programs, share what they have uncovered ab...

“Is Putin insane?” Vladimir Putin's speeches can offer insight into the Kremlin’s political thought patterns and intentions, but they are often misunderstood. Jill Dougherty sits down with Ivan Grek, Director of the Russia Program at George Washington University’s Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, who created a linguistic profile of Vladimir Putin to better understand the Russ...

Russia is determined that its war in Ukraine will shape the outlines of the future world order, and it’s using influence operations to ensure the outcome will be in Russia’s favor. Washington Post international investigative reporter Catherine Belton joins Jill Dougherty to discuss the crucial role of influence operations in Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, common Russian disinformati...

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.

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...

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 th...

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...

Jonatan Vseviov, Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and former Estonian Ambassador to the US, joins Jill Dougherty to discuss what it means to conduct foreign policy for a country that shares a border with Russia, particularly in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. They discuss how Estonia’s fraught relationship with the Soviet Union and later Russia shaped the B...

Food scholar and author Darra Goldstein joins Jill Dougherty to discuss her new book, The Kingdom of Rye: A Brief History of Russian Food. They cover the origins and histories of many classic Russian dishes and ingredients as well as their place within the broader culture. Their conversation also touches on the political dynamics between food culture and nationalism during Russia's ongoing invasio...

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan joins Jill Dougherty following an ambassadorship during one of the most tumultuous periods of U.S.-Russia relations to provide his perspective on the current relationship and Russia's troubling diplomatic strategies. Their discussion also touches on the domestic impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Kremlin's changing relationship with Evgeny...

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 a...

Jill Dougherty is joined by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse to discuss how corruption serves not only to enrich the elites of Russia, but also as tool to ensure continuity of power and that all opposition—both internal and external—is crushed. Senator Whitehouse also explains how this corruption directly targets the United States and the steps the government is taking to combat this this threat.

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)...

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 Barbashi...

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 wit...

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.

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.

With echoes of the Soviet retreat, the last American plane left Afghanistan on August 31, 2021 following two decades of war. How do the legacies of the Soviet and American occupations compare, and what does the future hold for Russian-Afghan relations with the Taliban now in charge? Our host Jill Dougherty is joined by Michael Kugelman and others for a conversation on Afghanistan and the role Russ...

It’s been nearly one year since Alexander Lukashenko declared victory over Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in an election rife with fraud. In this episode of KennanX , our host Jill Dougherty is joined by Ms. Tikhanovskaya for a conversation about her campaign for President of Belarus, the fallout from the election, what motivates her to stay in the fight, and the outcome of her recent trip to Washington,...

In their June summit, Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin pledged to restart a strategic dialogue on cyber issues. In this episode of KennanX, Jill Dougherty explores how the United States and Russia interact in the cyber realm, and how each country defines how it uses cyber for its national security. She speaks with Meg King of the Wilson Center, Pavel Sharikov of the Center for Applied Resea...

On October 22, 1962, American families gathered around their televisions for an address by President Kennedy. What they heard shocked them. In this episode of KennanX, Jill Dougherty revisits the Cuban Missile Crisis, uncovering lessons learned - and forgotten - with Serhii Plokhy, Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University and author of the new book,  Nuclear Folly: A Hist...

In October 2020, Kyrgyzstan’s capital was rocked by protests following an allegedly rigged parliamentary election, ultimately resulting in the resignation of Kyrgyz President Jeenbekov. In this episode of KennanX, Jill Dougherty explores the political geography and changing societal dynamics in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia with Edward Lemon, President of the Oxus Society and Research Assistant Prof...

In this episode of  KennanX , Jill Dougherty explores the characteristics and dynamics associated with the generation of young Russians that have grown up with Vladimir Putin as their leader for two decades. She speaks with Denis Volkov, Deputy Director at the Levada Center in Moscow, and Maria Snegovaya, Non-resident Fellow at the Atlantic Council and Post-Doctoral Scholar at Virginia Tech, about...

Since Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory over Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in an election rife with fraud, Belarus has been rocked by protests. Empowered by Tikhanovskaya and other female leaders, women have taken to the streets, forming the backbone of these society-altering protests. In this episode, Jill speaks with Elena Gapova of Western Michigan University and Maksimas Milta of the European Huma...