[ chanting ] all of east germany, angry crowds lashed out on the streets. that night in dresden, they found a target. the local kgb headquarters. a mob surrounded the building, as the hour grew later, the crowd grew larger. inside, peering through the curtains was a young kgb lieutenant colonel named vladimir putin. he was terrified they were going to storm the building. putin was a junior officer, but the boss was away. he was in charge. the berlin wall had come down, police weren t going to help. he called for instruction. desperate for help, putin dialed kgb headquarters in moscow, over and over again. finally, one official told him simply, moscow is silent. i think it felt like a deep betrayal to him. vladimir putin was on his own. he went down into the bowels of the building and fired up the furnace. he finds himself in the basement, at a furnace shoveling documents, as he hears protests on the street. they were filing so many documents, that the furnace was
Up next, author of putins kleptocracy. She talks about the designs putin has for russia today. She spoke about her book at Woodrow Wilson center in washington d. C. Welcome. We are, indeed, in for a treat today, and if you havent got enough discussion on putin, well, i think were going to, hopefully, satisfy your curiosity today. It is our great pleasure to have karen here to talk about her new book, putins kleptocracy, and i should add that the books are available on sale as well. Karen is the walter e. Havenhearst director of science for postsoviet studies at Miami University in ohio. She is a former Wilson Center Public Policy scholar as well as a former guest scholar at brookings. She has taught at many universities including a long stint in the university of maryland. The author of numerous books, but i are a sneaking suspicion that this one really rises to the top of the list x she received her ph. D. From the London School of economics. Karen will be followed by professor Elizab
Prince of bell air . For that he would get five day of detention. And what i found in a letter and interview that when the war was raging on and he was told russian airplanes were not great construction. You know it this isnt a great construction. It is efficient. So those planes were not great construction and not really good to protect the pilot. They were efficient in fighting the nazis. So his head was always sticking out from this cock pit so he invented a helmet and it was the soldiers hard hat and then the pilot had above it. So it protected them. My mother didnt keep the letters, but if i didnt have enough courage, was leonid a trader or not, i would never find out long after leonid was dead, his bitalion continued to wear this kind of battalion wore this helmet to the end of the car. I discovered he wasnt a trader and all of it was political and he didnt do anything wrong but wasnt a good soviet and therefore we face that. And also one of the problems i think that was importan
As tensions rise between Russia and the West, the Kremlin strives to increase its influence with the countries of the "Global South." Moscow enjoys stable diplomatic ties with some countries in Africa (some relations forged during the era of the former Soviet Union). Russia also seeks to control valuable assets on the continent: former Wagner Private Military Company (PMC)