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)
“Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible” by Peter Pomerantsev
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