Putin's Grievance Speech (preview)

Putin shocked and surprised pretty much everyone in Russia by launching a regime change war on Ukraine. Two days before that, he went on Russian TV and gave a menacing grievance speech — in which he attacked America but also went after the Bolsheviks, blaming the disintegration of the Soviet Union and today’s crisis in Ukraine squarely on Lenin. Evgenia and I discuss his speech and talk about how it fits into the mushy national identity that Putin’s elite has been trying to cobble together for Russia.—Yasha LevineThis is a preview of a full episode that is only available to subscribers. To hear the rest, sign up and listen here.Catch up on some old eps:* China's Olympic Menace and Immigrant Deprogramming with Carl Zha* “Navalny,” the documentary* The Ayahuasca Special* Christmas Special: Ghost of Epstein* St. Paul of Amsterdam* Immigrant Deprogramming with Nika Dubrovsky* Imaginary Futures with Richard Barbrook* Behind the Silicon Curtain* The Soviet Jew & good riddance Los Feliz* “I didn’t want to live in a simulacrum of American life in the ruins of the Soviet Union”* Watching American movies in the USSR ft. Boris Levine* Anti-Soviet identities in the USSR* The End* Breeders* Adam Curtis, get out of my head* Navalny, the Kremlin, and the curse of neoliberalism This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yasha.substack.com/subscribe