The Power Vertical Podcast by Brian Whitmore

Three decades ago, a new European state representing an old European nation appeared on the scene. Thirty years ago in the rubble of the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian people finally achieved their dream of independence, sovereignty, and statehood. And a generation after achieving this goal, today Ukrainians are still fighting to maintain it. The modern Ukrainian state turned 30 this w...

A rigged election is followed by unprecedented street protests as a civil society comes of age. A brutal crackdown on dissent by an increasingly desperate dictator. A brazen act of air piracy and kidnapping. Allegations of death squads. And successive waves of Western sanctions. From August 2020 to August 2021 everything changed in Belarus as Alyaksandr Lukashenka faced the most serious crisis of...

From strategic corruption to disinformation to support for extremist political movements, Vladimir Putin 's Kremlin has deployed many weapons in its ongoing war on Western democracy. This week's Power Vertical Podcast previews a soon-to-be-released report from the Free Russia Foundation looking at one front in that war - the United States. Host Brian Whitmore speaks to veteran journalist Casey Mic...

Independent media outlets and civic groups are shutting down after being designated "foreign agents" or "undesirable organizations." Russia's media regulator, Roskomnadzor, has blocked 49 websites linked to Aleksei Navalny as the imprisoned opposition leader's associates are arrested or flee the country. And the FSB has published a list of 61 topics that Russians are forbidden to discuss, lest the...

Vladimir Putin is obsessed with Ukraine. Back in 2008, he famously told then US President George W. Bush that it was not even a real country. In a press conference following his summit with current US President Joe Biden, Putin became visibly animated - indeed almost unhinged - when talking about Ukraine. And this week, Putin published an essay on the "historical unity" of Russia and Ukraine in wh...

Battleships, warplanes, brinkmanship, and geopolitics on the high seas. What actually happened when Britain's HMS Defender sailed from the Ukrainian port of Odessa to the Georgian port of Batumi? How did what appears to have been a routine mission to assert navigation rights in the Black Sea escalate into a military and diplomatic incident between Russia and the West? With Russia and NATO conducti...

The debate over Russia policy in the West is, unfortunately, not always grounded in reality. All too often, it is instead based on myths and misconceptions that have been spread by disinformation campaigns and perpetuated by whataboutism. As a result, Western policy toward Russia is often driven by wishful thinking on the part of many well-meaning politicians and policymakers. On this week's Power...

Western sanctions against Belarus finally appear to be targeting Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s enablers in Russia. When the United States, the European Union, Canada, and the United Kingdom announced a new round of sanctions against the Minsk regime this week, one name in particular stood out: Russian businessman Mikhail Gutseriyev, the largest single foreign investor in Belarus who was included on the...

It had the vibe of a Cold War-era summit and it came at the lowest point in U.S.-Russian relations in decades. When U.S. President Joe Biden met Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in Geneva, Russia's cyberattacks, election interference, human rights abuses, and aggression against its neighbors were all on the agenda. Both leaders laid down their so-called red lines and Putin predictably played his usua...

There won't be any reset buttons. There won't be any grand bargains. And U.S. President Joe Biden probably won't be looking into Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin's eyes and getting a sense of his soul. But the stakes will nevertheless be high when the U.S. and Russian presidents meet in Geneva next week. On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore speaks to Jonathan Katz, a senior fell...

Serious questions remain about whether the authoritarian regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka acted alone in hijacking Ryanair Flight 4978 and kidnapping Belarusian dissident journalist Raman Pratasevich and his Russian girlfriend Sofia Sapega. Did Lukashenka get a stealthy assist from Vladimir Putin's Russia in commandeering a commercial airliner travelling between two European Union countries? Was th...

It was always going to be a difficult needle to thread. The Biden administration clearly views Russia's Nord Stream-2 natural gas pipeline as a geopolitical project that threatens European energy security and that of Ukraine and eastern flank NATO allies like Poland and the Baltic states. But in Germany, the main destination of the pipeline, the project has powerful supporters, investors, and stak...

Should the United States and its allies consider broadening its approach to sanctions against Alyaksandr Lukashenka's authoritarian regime in Belarus to include its Russian enablers in Vladimir Putin's Kremlin? Should the West instead look at imposing sanctions on the Putin-Lukashenka Axis of Autocrats? On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, host Brian Whitmore speaks to David Kramer, who served a...

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Konstantin Eggert joins host Brian Whitmore to discuss the growing intensification of Vladimir Putin's regime's war on Russia's opposition.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Ilya Zaslavskiy and Josh Rudolph join host Brian Whitmore to discuss how to sanction a problem like Russia and look at the latest round of sanctions levied against Russia by the Biden administration.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Jamie Fly and Kiryl Sukhotksi join host Brian Whitmore to discuss the Kremlin’s campaign against the U.S. broadcaster, what this tells us about the state of Russia's domestic politics, and the escalating conflict between Moscow and the West.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Maria Snegovaya and Vladimir Milov join host Brian Whitmore to talk about Vladimir Putin's autocratic regime tightening the screws and turning up the pressure on the opposition.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Michael Kofman joins host Brian Whitmore to discuss Russia's recent troop buildup near the Ukrainian border and what Vladimir Putin's regime might be up to.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Terrell Jermaine Starr joins host Brian Whitmore to discuss his take on Navalny's civic activism and Navalny's nationalist and xenophobic past. He'll also talk about his forthcoming memoir about his time in the former Soviet Union.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Michael Kofman joins host Brian Whitmore to discuss how Russia is modernizing its military infrastructure and expanding its force structure in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad - which borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania and what it means.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Eto Buziashvili and Shota Gvineria join host Brian Whitmore to unpack the crisis in Georgia and what it means.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Maria Snegovaya and Vladimir Ashurkov join host Brian Whitmore to talk about if Navalny's power horizontal can continue to challenge Vladimir Putin's power vertical and the effectiveness of Western sanctions against Putin's regime.

In this episode of The Power Vertical, Vladimir Kara-Murza join host Brian Whitmore to talk about his story surviving not just one, but two assassination attempts by Vladimir Putin's death squads.

In this episode of The Power Vertical Podcast, Ilya Zaslavskiy and Casey Michel join host Brian Whitmore to talk about the whispering campaigns online about Alexei Navalny and Vladimir Putin's authoritarian regime's ability to manipulate Western institutions.

In this edition of The Power Vertical Podcast, Paul Massaro, policy advisor to the Helsinki Commission, and Josh Rudolph, fellow for Malign Finance at Alliance for Securing Democracy, join host Brian Whitmore to discuss how the United States and its allies can forge a grand strategy to combat the malign influence of Russian kleptocracy.