The Truth About Russia: Putin’s Rise, Morality, and Global Propaganda

Vladimir Putin is cold and calculating, not as a “master strategist,” but as a mafia boss who intends to expand his criminal empire. According to his author's bio on Amazon, "David Satter is one of the world’s leading commentators on Russia and the former Soviet Union. He is the author of four books on Russia and the creator of a documentary film on the fall of the U.S.S.R. In May, 2013, he became an adviser to the Russian Service of Radio Liberty and in September, 2013, he was accredited as a Radio Liberty correspondent in Moscow. Three months later, he was expelled from Russia becoming the first U.S. correspondent to be expelled since the Cold War. David Satter is a fellow of the Foreign Policy Institute at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a senior fellow of the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. He is also a senior fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia and an associate of the Henry Jackson Society in London. He has been a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He teaches a course on Russian politics and history at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced Academic Programs and has been a visiting professor at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and a visiting fellow in journalism at Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan. David Satter’s first book was Age of Delirium: the Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union, which was published in 1996. He later made a documentary film on the basis of this book which won the 2013 Van Gogh Grand Jury Prize at the Amsterdam Film Festival. In addition, David Satter has written three other books about Russia, Darkness at Dawn: the Rise of the Russian Criminal State (2003), It Was a Long Time Ago and It Never Happened Anyway: Russia and the Communist Past (2011), and The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia’s Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin. His books have been translated into eight languages." David Satter can be followed: X: @DavidSatter Dr. Jason Jay Smart can be followed: YouTube: / ‪‪‪‪ @jasonjaysmart X: https://x.com/OfficeJJSmart Facebook: facebook.com/JasonJaySmart LinkedIn: /jasonjaysmart Web: JasonJaySmart.com Chapters: 0:00 Intro 01:00 Was Yeltsin a reformer or a criminal? 03:20 How Putin was chosen: A history of corruption 06:00 The apartment bombings and Putin’s rise to power 08:40 Russia’s moral void: What went wrong after the Soviet Union 11:00 Manipulating the West: Russian propaganda and disinformation 13:10 Why defeating Russia in Ukraine is essential 15:10 The impact of Russian propaganda on U.S. liberals and conservatives 17:00 David Satter on what needs to change