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Radio War Nerd #306 — Ukraine-Russia War Fever, with Leonid Ragozin (Patreon)

Published:
2021-12-01 01:57:21
Edited:
2021-12-01 01:59:34
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Guest: Leonid Ragozin, journalist 

Recorded: November 29, 2021

There's been a lot of noise lately about a large-scale Russian military buildup on its border with Ukraine, with Serious People in DC claiming Putin is planning to invade by February. Riga-based journalist Leonid Ragozin joins the Nerd & Ames for a wide-ranging discussion of the military theatrics, the cold-blooded political calculations, and the broader world of assassinations & conspiracies in the region, from the unsolved murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet, to the bizarre Wagnergate plot. 

Follow Leonid Ragozin in Twitter. 

Check out Leonid's reporting at Zabarona on the assassination of Pavel Sheremet here and here. Read his latest piece on the Ukrainian infowarriors smear campaign against him.

Total time: 1:56:00

Direct link to this episode's mp3 here 

Files

Comments

Hugo

First 😎

Steven P Schiesser

Please talk about George Thomas I think he was interesting in many ways

Josephus Franks

Dammit Mark, I've been calling it the Necronomicon strain too - first time I heard "omicron" I just couldn't shake the similarity

Trevor deBoer

Guest sounds like your average Baltic russophobe with a thin veneer of journalism

Jeremy C-M

is the mp3 messed up for anyone else? starts skipping around 18:00. tried redownloading

Jeremy C-M

thru rss i mean. the separate mp3 download seems fine

radiowarnerd

Some folks saying the RSS feed file not working. Checking it out now, stay tuned. We blame Putin.

radiowarnerd

You're right, gonna re-input now. Sorry everyone.

radiowarnerd

Re-uploaded the RSS feed + liquidated Kremlin active measures bots that were trying to sow dissension and undermine public faith in Radio War Nerd's RSS feed. It should be working now. Victory to the mortals! Да здравствует Военный Ботаник!

Mark Ames

Also, if you read the Ukrainian far-right's smear piece against Leonid as a Kremlin agent, the one that doxxed Leonid's relatives in Moscow's address and was boosted by some Atlantic Council Cold Warrior types, they say Leonid's move to Riga in 2013 was further evidence that he's a Kremlin agent disguised as a journalist. I hate to post the smear piece, but if you're going to make a claim like that, you should see what he's up against. https://informnapalm.org/en/leonid-ragozin-russian-opposition-journalist-in-latvia-as-promoter-of-kremlins-narratives/

Trevor deBoer

I'm not disputing that he may also piss off the Nazi/Nazi-adjacent elements on the far right of Ukie politics, but when he was talking about Putin he sounded unhinged (e.g. "half the people who support Putin think he's a crook", "Russia is an absolute dictatorship", etc.). Now, maybe he is motivated to say those things to avoid being again painted as a Kremlin stooge. But to those of us who are not Nazi-adjacent and have been paying attention to Ukraine, he does not come off as an honest reporter.

Ben

Could you link that article about the Gates Foundation?

radiowarnerd

The far right goons in the Baltics and Ukraine say the exact same thing—the only reason he's critical of Putin is to throw people off the fact that he's a Kremlin agent.

Mark Ames

Speaking as someone who lived in Russia and who is still in contact with many Russians, both supporters and opponents of Putin, I think it's long been fair to say that a large portion of Putin's supporters think he's a crook. They just don't support replacing him and the potential chaos that could ensue, and they assume that all politicians are crooks and liars, and that as crooked politicians go, Putin is better than the competition. As for dictatorship, Leonid acknowledged that until the last year Putin allowed space for critical journalism and outside-the-system opposition politics, and it's pretty clear that that changed over the last year for the worse. I wouldn't call it "unhinged" to describe the current situation a dictatorship, though I don't fully agree with it. But as we talked about in our episode on Brazil's military junta (EP #154), even that dictatorship allowed quasi-opposition political parties, and a certain degree of critical media, so it's not like the word "dictatorship" is fixed in stone.

mt

With respect to Biden, Ukraine and Zelenskiy, must the Gas Reverse deal be taken into account. Biden earned millions through a gas export/import deal, gas crossing the ukrainian border and back. Zelenskiy changed the head of Naftogas, Kobolev (appointed by Biden to assure kickbacks from reverse gas. It is worth learning German just to read and understand the filth going on there. https://www.anti-spiegel.ru/2020/bidenleaks-neue-veroeffentlichungen-ueber-joe-bidens-korruption-und-andere-machenschaften-in-der-ukraine/ https://www.anti-spiegel.ru/2019/korruption-anstatt-ukraine-skandal-kontoauszuege-belegen-zahlung-von-16-mio-us-an-bidens-umfeld/ https://www.anti-spiegel.ru/2020/bidenleaks-teil-4-wie-joe-biden-und-george-soros-nach-dem-maidan-in-der-ukraine-milliarden-verdient-haben/ https://www.anti-spiegel.ru/2021/das-ende-des-gas-revers-der-wahre-grund-fuer-kiews-veraergerung-ueber-den-neuen-gasvertrag-ungarns/ https://www.anti-spiegel.ru/2021/warum-us-aussenminister-blinken-nach-kiew-gereist-ist/

AG

Great episode Mark. Have appreciated Leonid’s work for a while and he’s been getting battered online by the usual suspects in a very sleazy attempt to undermine his journalism. Great guest to have on, doing important work, and I appreciated his thoughtful responses to your questions.

James

Mark - I appreciate you linking to the smear piece against Leonid because it helps me appreciate that not everyone who criticizes Putin does so out of ignorance or bad faith.

James

Anybody got a link to the Michael Kauffman piece Mark mentions at 44:39?

Brydon

Who was the other guy (I heard Lukashenko) Leonid called a headache for Putin?

Brydon

What was the article referred to in the Atlantic council regarding Ukraine joining NATO?

Craig Murphy

Ramzan Kadyrov, in Chechnya.

Craig Murphy

Why Ukraine must join NATO By Adrian Hoefer

Brydon

I saw that article when I googled. I could be misremembering, but I felt like whoever brought up the Atlantic council article calling for Ukraine to join NATO was someone important in foreign policy circles. The Adrian person doesn’t seem to be of any importance

Lionel Boyd Johnson

I appreciate you guys not just dismissing us out of hand when we have questions, disputes, or misunderstandings. You could talk down or belittle us, but you guys always make a good faith effort to engage and explain your positions, and I really appreciate it. It makes me take you guys even more seriously and question my own assumptions, which i think makes me a more effective critical news reader. This exchange was a great example. Just wanted recognize it and say thanks!

online Leftist Archive Project (LARP)

alright alright you've done your due diligence breaking up the civil war series with extra content, now let's have some mooooooooooaaaaaarrrrrrrrre!! lol

Robert Rowe

And this am (12/8/21) the NY Times "The Morning" news skim email in my inbox leads off with their oh-so-serious article purporting to show that although the USA has many flaws, our lack of UNITY! is emboldening !EVIL, NOT LIKE US OTHER EMPIRES! such as China and Russia, who obviously must be far worse. And that the Russian red line over (USA as the only meaningful voice in NATO) taking Ukraine is unreasonable, evil and worth starting WWIII over. Not one mention of that old and unimportant Bush the elder era promise to keep NATO from expanding into the old border republics.

xnfec

That was really interesting. I've read that Ukraine is cutting off water to Crimea. Might that have any bearing on the subject of this podcast? Unrelated, but a friend has this youtube channel which features some interesting talks. The latest had a section by general Mike Tucker who gave a talk about what it was like to command a tank unit during the cold war. I thought the various war nerds might find it interesting. The link is here. The general is the third person to talk. The rest of it does touch a little on what was covered here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYJNp09v0WM