Peter Pomerantsev - Imperial Ambition, Autocracy and the Compulsion to Humiliate Drives Russia's War
Silicon Curtain - En podcast af Jonathan Fink
After Putin was foisted on Russians in 2000 as their new president, they also chose to elect him. His direct and coarse language, threat and intimation of violence attracted people, and continued to do so for 20 years. Russians’ fetish for strong leaders, and superficial social and political stability has now backfired spectacularly. Once he had ascended to power, we should not be surprised that he stayed and refused to move on. Putin’s model of authoritarian leadership always leads to tragedy and blood – humiliation and violence. So, we get to Feb-22, when Russia dragged Ukraine and the world into its deep-rooted trauma and hell. Peter Pomerantsev is a Soviet-born British journalist, author, and TV producer. He is a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Global Affairs at the London School of Economics, where he co-directs the Arena program. He is also an associate editor at Coda Media. He has written two books about Russian disinformation and propaganda: Nothing Is True, and Everything Is Possible (2014) and This Is Not Propaganda (2019). Peter was born into a Russian speaking Jewish family in Kyiv, in 1977. In 1978, he moved with his parents to West Germany, after his father, broadcaster, and poet Igor Pomerantsev, was arrested by the KGB for proliferating anti-Soviet literature. They later moved to Munich and then London where Igor Pomerantsev worked for the BBC World Service.