Meduza’s English-language podcast, The Naked Pravda highlights how our top reporting intersects with the wider research and expertise that exists about Russia. The broader context of Meduza’s in-depth, original journalism isn’t always clear, which is where this show comes in. Here you’ll hear from the world’s community of Russia experts, activists, and reporters about issues that are at the heart of Meduza’s stories and crucial to major events in and around Russia.
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Meduza’s English-language podcast, The Naked Pravda highlights how our top reporting intersects with the wider research and expertise that exists about Russia. The broader context of Meduza’s in-depth, original journalism isn’t always clear, which is where this show comes in. Here you’ll hear from the world’s community of Russia experts, activists, and reporters about issues that are at the heart of Meduza’s stories and crucial to major events in and around Russia.
Journalist Julia Ioffe returns to The Naked Pravda to discuss her new book, Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy.
Political scientist Maria Snegovaya joins The Naked Pravda to discuss the mounting costs straining the Kremlin’s war machine and four plausible scenarios for the Russia–Ukraine war’s next chapter.
Dr. Olga Oliker discusses escalating incursions by Russian aircraft into NATO airspace in Eastern Europe, drawing comparisons to Turkey downing a Russian bomber in Syria in the November 2015.
Journalist Joshua Yaffa discusses his June 2025 New Yorker article, “Collective Punishment: Why is Donald Trump upending America’s commitment to NATO?” and how the looming threats of Russian aggression and U.S. withdrawal pressure Europe.
Historian Benjamin Nathans joins The Naked Pravda to discuss his latest book, “To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement” (Princeton University Press, August 2024).
Anthropologist Jeremy Morris joins The Naked Pravda to discuss his latest book, “Everyday Politics in Russia: From Resentment to Resistance” (Bloomsbury, March 2025).
With help from financial transparency expert Ilya Shumanov, Meduza breaks down the squabbling and criminal stakes at the heart of the scandal involving Probusinessbank, the Anti-Corruption Foundation, and activist Maxim Katz.
The Naked Pravda talks to journalist and writer Paula Erizanu and Ecaterina Locoman, a senior lecturer in international studies at the University of Pennsylvania’s Lauder Institute, about Moldova’s 2024 presidential election and constitutional referendum.
Meduza spoke to disinformation expert Renée DiResta about Russian propaganda, how it’s evolved over the years, and how American social networks are responding (and not responding) ahead of the November 2024 vote.
For a crash course in Russian-North Korean relations and a hard look at recent claims from the Ukrainian and South Korean governments of thousands of North Korean soldiers flooding the battlefield in Ukraine, Meduza spoke to Dr. Fyodor Tertitsky.
The Naked Pravda talks to Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center fellow Alexandra Prokopenko about Russia’s 2025 draft budget, focusing on planned allocations to the military.
The Naked Pravda speaks to Ilya Shumanov, the general director of Transparency International-Russia in exile, about the clan conflict at the heart of a merger between the online marketplace Wildberries and the outdoor advertising company Russ Group.
To discuss the recent explosion of American police and diplomatic activity targeting RT and Russian covert influence operations in the U.S., The Naked Pravda spoke to RFE/RL journalist Mike Eckel.
To find out where the Russian-Iranian partnership is headed and what, if anything, changes in the Ukraine War with Tehran sending ballistic missiles to Moscow, The Naked Pravda spoke to non-proliferation expert Dr. Nicole Grajewski.
To unpack the tools that restrict and monitor the modern-day RuNet, Meduza speaks to experts Sarkis Darbinyan and Philipp Dietrich. This week’s episode focuses on Russia’s recent YouTube throttling and Telegram access disruptions.
The Naked Pravda welcomes RFE/RL journalists Mark Krutov and Sergey Dobrynin discuss the course of Ukraine’s Kursk incursion and to understand why sending conscripts into Russia’s new conflict zone is so tricky.
Financial Times Russia correspondent Anastasiia Stognei explains how the Russian economy manages surprisingly resilience in the face of Western sanctions, despite a more bleak long-term outlook.
International Crisis Group senior Ukraine analyst Simon Schlegel joins Meduza to talk about the lessons Kyiv and its allies must learn from the war so far if they hope to hold the line against Russia.
Meduza asks political scientist Colleen Wood, human rights activist Dinara Smailova, and journalist Aleksandra Akanaeva about the repercussions in Kazakhstan of the murder conviction of former Economic Minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev.
Meduza’s English-language podcast, The Naked Pravda highlights how our top reporting intersects with the wider research and expertise that exists about Russia. The broader context of Meduza’s in-depth, original journalism isn’t always clear, which is where this show comes in. Here you’ll hear from the world’s community of Russia experts, activists, and reporters about issues that are at the heart of Meduza’s stories and crucial to major events in and around Russia.
