How Putin created the most threatening regime in the world – with Michael Thumann

Mark Leonard invited Michael Thumann to talk about his new book “Revenge: How Putin created the most threatening regime in the world”

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This week, Mark Leonard is joined by Michael Thumann, foreign affairs correspondent for the German weekly newspaper Die ZEIT, longtime expert on Russia, and one of the only German correspondents still reporting from Moscow. Following the publication of Thumann’s new book, “Revanche. Wie Putin das bedrohlichste Regime der Welt geschaffen hat” (“Revenge: How Putin created the most threatening regime in the world”, currently only available in German), he and Leonard discuss the roots of the Russian regime’s imperialistic behaviour. What is the relevance of Vladimir Putin’s interpretation of Russian history? Could Russia become a ‘normal country’ in the future? And how have Germans’ views of Russia changed since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine?

This podcast was recorded on 1 February 2023.

Further reading:

Bookshelf

Cover image:
Michael Thumann auf der 20. Außenpolitische Jahrestagung der Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, 2020

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