For decades, Russian commentators and segments of the Russian political elite have been confidently predicting that the United States would eventually suffer the exact same fate as the Soviet Union: collapse and disintegration.
This view was out on the fringes in the 1990s and early 2000s, but in recent years it has moved squarely into the mainstream – and has been backed up by policies to help make it a reality.
And in the wake of the most contentious election in recent US history, the Kremlin appears to think the moment is at hand.
So what is behind Putin’s plot against America? And how seriously should we be taking it? On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Mikhail Zygar, author of the bestselling books All The Kremlin’s Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin and War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and John Sipher, a 28-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency’s National Clandestine Service.
Please follow Brian Whitmore and The Power Vertical on Bluesky @powervertical.bsky.social
SHOW NOTES
Mikhail Zygar’s November 19, 2024 article in The New York Times, “Putin Sees America Hurtling to Disaster With Trump at the Wheel,” which was referenced in the podcast, can be accessed here.
Mikhail Zygar’s Substack newsletter, The Last Pioneer, can be accessed here.
Zygar’s 2016 book, All the Kremlin’s Men can be purchased here. His 2023 book, War and Punishment can be purchased here. And all his published op-eds in The New York Times can be accessed here.
John Sipher’s August 13, 2018 article in The Atlantic, “Convergence Is Worse Than Collusion,” which was referenced in the podcast, can be accessed here. His published works for The Cipher Brief can be accessed here.
The Power Vertical Newsletter on Substack can be accessed here. Recently published work by Brian Whitmore can be accessed here, here, and here.