The fall of the Soviet Union — David Satter

 The fall of the Soviet Union

David Satter

 The fall of the Soviet Union was supposed to usher in freedom. Instead, it unleashed a criminal state.

In this revealing conversation, renowned Russia expert David Satter joins Dr. Jason Jay Smart to expose how the 1990s reforms turned Russia into a violent kleptocracy—dominated by organized crime, corrupted by oligarchs, and ultimately controlled by a new authoritarian regime under Vladimir Putin.

Satter explains how Western leaders misread the collapse of the USSR and failed to understand the criminal networks that replaced it. Drawing from decades of first hand reporting and investigation, he outlines how Russia’s past continues to fuel its present-day aggression.

Key topics:

– How organized crime hijacked Russia’s transition to capitalism

– What Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin had in common

– Why the West misjudged the Russian “reform” period

– How Soviet habits of repression quietly evolved—not disappeared

David Satter is one of the world’s foremost authorities on Russia and the former Soviet Union. In 2013, he became the first U.S. journalist expelled from Russia since the Cold War. He is a fellow at the Hudson Institute and the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and has taught Russian politics and history at Johns Hopkins University. His works on Russia are considered authoritative, including titles such as Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State; The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia’s Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin; It Was a Long Time Ago and It Never Happened Anyway: Russia and the Communist Past; Age of Delirium: The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union (also adapted into an award-winning documentary).

Follow David Satter:

X: @DavidSatter

Website: https://davidsatter.org

Follow Dr. Jason Jay Smart:

YouTube:    / @jasonjaysmart   

X: https://x.com/OfficeJJ...

Facebook:   / jasonjaysmart  

LinkedIn:   / jasonjayssmart  

Website: https://JasonJaySmart.com

Chapters:

00:00 Intro: Who is David Satter?

01:00 What does Putin want from Ukraine?

03:35 Putin's lack of remorse for killings

06:10 Soviet roots of Putin’s ideology

09:00 Power over ideology: Putin's real motivation

11:50 Putin’s shifting narratives and propaganda

14:20 Why Putin doesn’t want the war to end

16:00 What could force Putin to negotiate?

18:00 Western economic pressure and public opinion

20:00 Final thoughts: The key role of the West

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