On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Dmitri Trenin, a member of Russia’s Foreign and Defense Policy Council and the former director of the Carnegie Moscow Center. He discusses the Russian presidential elections, in which Vladimir Putin is seeking re-election, Putin’s balancing act of funding the military while funding social programs in an attempt to avoid the mistakes of the Soviet Union, and the end of hope in Russia for good relations with the US and European countries after Russia was double-crossed on Ukraine. He also discusses Putin’s transformation of Russia into Russian Federation 2.0 after the start of the Ukraine proxy conflict, his surprise that European countries are pushing tensions with Russia to the brink of direct conflict, and much more.
