The Naked Pravda
Meduza’s English-language podcast, The Naked Pravda highlights how our top reporting intersects with the wider research and expertise that exists about Russia. The broader context of Meduza’s in-depth, original journalism isn’t always clear, which is where this show comes in. Here you’ll hear from the world’s community of Russia experts, activists, and reporters about issues that are at the heart of Meduza’s stories and crucial to major events in and around Russia.
The Russian Internet at war
To understand the current state of the Russian Internet and online free speech in Russia, The Naked Pravda turns to scholar Mariëlle Wijermars and Sarkis Darbinyan, the senior legal expert at the RuNet watchdog RosKomSvoboda.
Russian prisons today
Meduza asks Dr. Judith Pallot, research director of the Gulag Echoes project at the University of Helsinki, and journalist Ksenia Mironova, the partner of political prisoner Ivan Safronov, about life inside Russia’s prison system.
Ukraine’s fight inside Russia, behind enemy lines
Meduza speaks to military analyst Rob Lee and investigative journalist Roman Dobrokhotov about Ukrainian drone strikes inside Russia and Crimea and special operations designed to take the war to Moscow.
How the Putin regime uses the memory of WWII
Meduza examines the role of Victory Day in Russia, focusing on memory politics and how the Putin regime uses the holiday to achieve its own ends during the invasion of Ukraine. With guest Dr. Allyson Edwards, a specialist in Russian militarism.
What human rights activism is still possible in Russia?
Meduza speaks to OVD-Info English managing editor Dan Storyev about how his organization coordinates the activities of activists, journalists, and lawyers to assist and publicize the victims of Russian political repressions.
Russia's history of terrorism
Following the assassinations of pro-invasion bloggers Daria Dugina and Vladlen Tatarsky, The Naked Pravda asks two scholars, Dr. Lynn Ellen Patyk and Dr. Iain Lauchlan, about the history of terrorism in Russia.
Rostec’s PR war on Telegram
Journalist Svetlana Reiter discusses her joint investigation of Rostec, one of Russia’s key state corporations, and its campaign to exert control over the public discourse on Telegram about Rostec’s operations and executives.
The Russian military’s growing discipline problems
Mediazona reporter and data-team journalist David Frenkel discusses a new investigation into service-related felony cases skyrocketing in Russian military courts as the pressures of mobilization mount.
Imaginary wives, seized children, Wagner Group's Pornhub campaign
Show host Kevin Rothrock revisits noteworthy news stories in Russia from mid-March 2023 and celebrates 99 episodes of The Naked Pravda by reading some listener feedback.
Russian youth culture and subcultures
The Naked Pravda tackles late February’s “PMC Ryodan” scare and talks to two experts in Russian youth culture, Kristiina Silvan and Felix Krawatzek, about the state of their field and today’s most common research methodologies.
The Russian Volunteer Corps and its neo-Nazi leader
Meduza speaks to journalist and Bellingcat Monitoring Project head Michael Colborne for background about the Russian Volunteer Corps and its neo-Nazi leader after a raid on two small towns outside Bryansk on March 2.
What the hell is Russia’s Wagner Group?
To understand how Wagner Group should be defined, why its brutality is so valuable to Moscow, and how its recruitment of inmates has played out, Meduza spoke to scholars Candace Rondeaux and Andreas Heinemann-Grüder and Bellingcat researcher Aric Toler.
Russian influence in Hungary
For a look at Russian influence in Hungary and its impact on the Orbán government’s response to the war in Ukraine, Meduza speaks to three experts: Szabolcs Panyi, Andras Tóth-Czifra, and Zsuzsanna Vegh.
Russia’s wartime emigration sparks a ‘reckoning’ in Central Asia
Meduza speaks to migration researcher Yan Matusevich about the ongoing consequences of the “Russian migrant crisis” that hit Central Asian countries in 2022.
War reporting in Ukraine with The Washington Post’s Kyiv bureau
Meduza asks Washington Post Kyiv bureau chief Isabelle Khurshudyan about the expanding news coverage of Ukraine, the sensitivities journalists navigate when interviewing sources in wartime and in warzones, and more.
‘Hybrid Warriors: Proxies, Freelancers, and Moscow’s Struggle for Ukraine’
Meduza speaks to Anna Arutunyan about her new book, “Hybrid Warriors: Proxies, Freelancers, and Moscow’s Struggle for Ukraine,” a study of the early pivotal years of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Beyond TV and polling in Russia
Meduza speaks to anthropologist Jeremy Morris about foreign Russia scholars’ growing reliance on state television as a means of monitoring what is thought to be public opinion, and about problems with polling in Russia.
Problems with the West’s talk about Ukraine’s ‘decolonization’
Meduza speaks to sociologist Volodymyr Ishchenko about his recent essay in New Left Review, where he warns that talk in the West about Ukraine’s “decolonization” often focuses too much on “symbols and identity” and not enough on social transformation.
Studying Russia from afar
Meduza welcomes Riddle editor-in-chief Olga Irisova to discuss being banned by the Russian authorities and producing Russia expertise remotely amid heightened police censorship.
The fight for the future of the Russian language
The Naked Pravda asks philologist Gasan Gusejnov to explain how he views the social and political state of the Russian language today.
Who the hell is Evgeny Prigozhin?
To understand the current significance in Russia of warlord, catering magnet, troll king, and all-around Putin buddy Evgeny Prigozhin, The Naked Pravda speaks to five journalists and experts.
An idiot’s guide to the current state of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Meduza asks military analyst Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), for a rundown of the invasion’s latest developments and answers to common questions about the war.
What if Russian commercial aviation cuts too many safety corners?
The Naked Pravda asked experts Richard Aboulafia and Dr. Pavel Luzin about the risks of safety lapses in Russia’s aviation industry amid international sanctions that could soon jeopardize domestic commercial air travel.
What if Russia uses a dirty bomb in Ukraine?
What are “dirty bombs”? And what would happen if a radiological weapon were detonated in Ukraine? The Naked Pravda asked three experts.
Would Russians be able to rationalize the war against Ukraine without gendered rhetoric?
Dr. Lisa Gaufman joined the podcast to discuss her research on how feminization rhetoric helps legitimize Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Will U.S. partisan politics undermine American support for Ukraine?
The Naked Pravda asks FPRI Eurasia Program fellow Aaron Schwartzbaum and international relations Associate Professor Volodymyr Dubovyk how U.S. partisan politics affects American support for Ukraine.
If China invades Taiwan, what happens to the war in Ukraine?
If China invades Taiwan, what would it mean for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? The Naked Pravda asked regional experts Dr. Sergey Radchenko and Dr. Natasha Kuhrt.
What if Russia uses nuclear weapons?
What if Vladimir Putin orders a nuclear strike? The Naked Pravda asked two experts in nuclear weapon strategy and nuclear crises, Dr. Olga Oliker and Dr. Mariana Budjeryn.
What if Vladimir Putin dies tomorrow?
The Naked Pravda turns to three experts for insights into the potential domestic and global consequences of Putin’s death.
Season three trailer
The Naked Pravda returns for a third season on Friday, September 23, 2022. Each show explores a hypothetical event and its potential consequences for Russia and its relationship with the rest of the world.
Kadri Liik explains ‘Putin’s archaic war’ and the Russia we lost
Russian domestic and foreign policy expert Kadri Liik joins The Naked Pravda to discuss her recent article, “Putin’s Archaic War,” about how the invasion of Ukraine derailed Russia’s poorly understood, peculiar democratization trends.
Russian film and television before and since the invasion of Ukraine
The Naked Pravda speaks to three Russian film and television experts about the industry’s trends and struggles over the past few years and in recent months.
How sanctions against Russia reshape the world
To discuss how economic sanctions are reshaping Russia’s place in the world, Meduza welcomed back political risk analyst Dr. Maria Shagina.
Genocide in Ukraine
The Naked Pravda spoke to four experts about war atrocities in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, focusing particularly on genocide as it’s understood both legally and historically.
Resist and rebuild: Civilian life in wartime Ukraine
Meduza turns to researcher Maria Avdeeva and journalist Nataliya Gumenyuk for insight into civilian life in Ukraine after nine weeks of all-out war.
The Russian North Caucasus during the Ukraine War
Meduza speaks to journalist and activist Izabella Evloeva and independent political and security analyst Harold Chambers to find out how the invasion of Ukraine has affected politics and public life in the Russian North Caucasus.
Independent journalism in Russia after the fall of the free press
Meduza interviews two independent journalists now operating from outside Russia to find out how they’re managing this job: Farida Rustamova (who uses Telegram and Substack) and Ekaterina Kotrikadze (on Telegram and YouTube).
A Russian journalist in Ukraine’s besieged city of Chernihiv
The Naked Pravda speaks to journalist Lilya Yapparova about her new report from the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, which she left just as Russian troops again besieged the city.
Telegram and the future of Russian Internet freedom
The Naked Pravda speaks to digital media experts Dr. Tanya Lokot and Dr. Mariëlle Wijermars about Russia’s wartime Internet censorship and Russians’ growing reliance on Telegram for unfiltered information.
Russia’s looming financial collapse — a return to the 1990s or 1918?
Meduza asked Russian economy expert Maximilian Hess how badly the financial system in Moscow could collapse under Western sanctions. We mentioned 1991. He talked about 1918.
Putin vs. Ukrainian history
The Naked Pravda speaks to historian Dr. Faith Hillis about Ukrainian and Soviet history, and how we ought to understand Putin’s grand vision of the past.
Thirty years of U.S. ambassadors in Moscow
Meduza speaks to scholar and journalist Jill Dougherty and arms control expert Dr. Hanna Notte about their experiences hosting a major interview series from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies with eight former U.S. ambassadors to Moscow.
The contemporary cultures of Eastern Europe’s breakaway states
Kevin Rothrock reviews the week’s news and opinions, and Eilish Hart speaks to journalist Katie Marie Davies about the evolving contemporary cultures of Transnistria, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia.
Everyday life under Kremlin brinkmanship
With Russia massing troops along its border with Ukraine and the conflict in the Donbas entering its eighth year, Meduza turns to journalists Angelina Karyakina and Uliana Pavlova for some perspective on how Ukrainians and Russians view today’s tensions.
Russia's peacekeeping mission in Kazakhstan and security demands in Europe
Meduza speaks to EurasiaNet Central Asia editor Peter Leonard about Kazakhstan’s recent unrest and the CSTO peacekeeping mission in the country, and foreign policy expert Fyodor Lukyanov answers questions about the Kremlin’s security demands in Europe.
44 minutes