"We have our own Solovyov, Kiselyov, and all these fools" – David Remnick on propaganda and Putin...
Today on "After Tomorrow," we're interviewing David Remnick, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist and author. I consider myself a huge fan of his book, "Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire." And, of course, I had a lot of questions about what's happening today. We talked about the war in Ukraine, Putin's death, the possibility of a coup in the Kremlin, and courage.
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00:00 Is Putin the new Stalin or Lenin? Francis Fukuyama's thesis from "The End of History" seemed absurd, but in 1991, I was extremely optimistic.
02:37 Is Putin's death the only solution? Mark Galeotti and others are telling us that Putin has Parkinson's disease or cancer—that's wishful thinking, not a genuine analysis. Kremlin coups: Brezhnev and Khrushchev, a putsch to overthrow Gorbachev.
05:44 How can the war be stopped? Contradiction: Putin's common sense was to acquire significant Ukrainian territory: Donbas, and obviously Crimea. Why should Ukraine put up with this? Therefore, it will continue for quite some time.
09:03 Why was everyone wrong about Ukraine? Or did they overestimate Russia? The operation in Crimea created the impression that the Russian military has become innovative. But we shouldn't underestimate the lengths Putin is willing to go.
11:29 Could Putin press a button and use nuclear weapons?
13:10 Volodymyr Zelenskyy - the new leader of the free world? The Ukrainian nation and the strengthening of the state are Putin's great historical achievement.
15:28 The future of Russian culture and the new attitude toward it, not only in Ukraine, but also in the West and around the world. Putin's propaganda war and the flood of people leaving Russia. People in high and mid-level positions have the courage to speak out against the war. Such conflicts could be a sign of something deeper, something we've yet to see.
19:37 Are those who remained in Russia accomplices of war? The dissident movement in the USSR was tiny. Navalny is nothing like Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov. Who's willing to risk going to prison?
23:39 The abolition of Russian culture. The difference between Gergiev and Sorokin. But the wholesale condemnation of Russian culture is banal and stupid.
28:14 Timothy Snyder's thesis that today's Russia is a fascist state. Timothy Snyder's role for many years has been to wake up the West.
30:29 Democracy is a fragile phenomenon. We had the experience of all three branches of government participating in an attempt to cancel a national election. And now, as the investigation into this matter is underway, 40% of the country still believes Trump. We have our own Solovyov and Kiselyov.
32:44 Is Americans' attention to the war waning? The New Yorker, CNN, The New York Times, and the Washington Post continue to write about the war.
33:21 Is Russia doomed to dictatorship? The damage done after the Ukrainian invasion, to political thinking and institutions that were very, very immature, is enormous. It will take a long time to recover.