logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2024
1 h

Ep. 208: Dodging censorship in Russia

FIRE
About this episode

On today's episode, we discuss Alexei Navalny's death, Vladimir Putin, censorship in Russia, and Samizdat Online, an anti-censorship platform that grants users living under authoritarian regimes access to news and other censored content. Yevgeny "Genia" Simkin is the co-founder of Samizdat Online and Stanislav "Stas" Kucher is its chief content officer.

 

Timestamps

 

0:00 Introduction 

2:25 Alexei Navalny 

8:53 The state of Russian opposition

20:48 The origins of Samizdat Online

28:17 How does Samizdat Online circumvent censorship? 

35:16 Could Yevgeny Prigozhin have overthrown Putin?

41:03 The progression of Putin's regime 

58:08 How can people help? 

59:56 Outro

 

Show notes

 

Statement by Russian prison service on Alexei Navalny's death

The Anti-Corruption Foundation (nonprofit established by Alexei Navalny)

Samizdat Online

"Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible" by Peter Pomerantsev

Transcript

 

Past related episodes

 

Ep. 108: A history of (dis)information wars in the Soviet Union and beyond

Ep. 156: What Russians don't know about the war in Ukraine

Ep. 157: Former BBC bureau chief Konstantin Eggert and what you need to know about censorship in Russia

Up next
Nov 13
Ep. 257: Conversion therapy at the Supreme Court
FIRE's Ronnie London and Conor Fitzpatrick join the show to discuss the Supreme Court's oral argument in the conversion therapy case, the Pentagon's new press rules, Indiana University's censorship rampage, and where the situation stands with visa and green card holders who say t ... Show More
1h 5m
Oct 30
Ep. 256: Ten arguments against free speech
We tackle ten common arguments against free speech. FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff and FIRE Senior Fellow and former ACLU President Nadine Strossen are the co-authors of the new book, "War on Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech—And Why They Fail." Transcript Timestamps ... Show More
1h 14m
Oct 15
Ep. 255: Authoritarians in the Academy
FIRE Senior Scholar Sarah McLaughlin discusses her new book, "Authoritarians in the Academy: How the Internationalization of Higher Education and Borderless Censorship Threaten Free Speech." Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:17 Book origins 03:38 How China censored speech on American ca ... Show More
40m 3s
Recommended Episodes
Feb 2024
Who is left to oppose Putin now?
Alexei Navalny, the most prominent critic of Russia’s government, has died in a Russian prison, just months after he was placed in a high security cell in a remote Siberian penal colony. His allies, and his wife Yulia Navalnaya, blame President Vladimir Putin and say it was under ... Show More
15m 35s
Jul 2022
Why hasn’t Russia banned YouTube?
YouTube, which is owned by Google, is one of the rare Western social media platforms that is not banned by Russia. Neal Mohan, YouTube’s Chief Product Officer, discusses the fine line between disinformation and censorship – and explains why banning fake news channels isn’t always ... Show More
36m 37s
Feb 2024
Alexei Navalny: The death of Putin’s biggest critic
Russia's most significant opposition leader for the past decade, Alexei Navalny, has died in an Arctic Circle jail, the prison service has said. What does that mean for the future of Russia, its opposition movement and its leader, Vladimir Putin? In this special episode of The Gl ... Show More
25m 17s
May 2022
Putin's parade
Putin tells his troops they are fighting for their motherland. Former Russian MP Sergei Markov and advisor to Vladimir Putin gives the Kremlin’s point of view on the day his country celebrates victory at the end of the Second World War, against the backdrop of the ongoing war in ... Show More
29m 18s
Dec 2023
Inside Russia’s Crackdown on Dissent: An Update
<p><i>This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened in the time since they first ran.</i></p><p>Days after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Kremlin made it a crime to oppose the war in public. Since then, it has waged ... Show More
20m 58s
Feb 2024
Alexeï Navalny, de l'opposant numéro un au martyr russe
<p>Le 20 août 2020, Alexeï Navalny échappe de peu à la mort, après avoir été empoisonné par les services de renseignements russes. Après une longue période de convalescence en Allemagne, il revient en Russie le 17 janvier 2021, où il est arrêté dès sa descente de l’avion. Condamn ... Show More
31m 7s
Jul 2023
The Ukrainian spymaster who Putin wants dead
Major-General Kyrylo Budanov is the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence - the 37-year-old has enjoyed a meteoric rise to become the country's youngest head of the organisation. Russia believes that he is lying in a coma in Germany following a missile strike on his headquarter ... Show More
31m 55s