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So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast takes an uncensored look at the world of free expression through personal stories and candid conversations.
New episodes post every other Thursday.

Mar 14, 2024

On today’s episode, we discuss Alexei Navalny’s death, Vladimir Putin, censorship in Russia, and Samizdat Online, an anti-censorship platform that grants users living under authoritarian regimes access to news and other censored content. Yevgeny “Genia” Simkin is the co-founder of Samizdat Online and Stanislav “Stas” Kucher is its chief content officer.

 

Timestamps

 

0:00 Introduction 

2:25 Alexei Navalny 

8:53 The state of Russian opposition

20:48 The origins of Samizdat Online

28:17 How does Samizdat Online circumvent censorship? 

35:16 Could Yevgeny Prigozhin have overthrown Putin?

41:03 The progression of Putin’s regime 

58:08 How can people help? 

59:56 Outro

 

Show notes

 

Statement by Russian prison service on Alexei Navalny’s death

The Anti-Corruption Foundation (nonprofit established by Alexei Navalny)

Samizdat Online

Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible” by Peter Pomerantsev

Transcript

 

Past related episodes

 

Ep. 108: A history of (dis)information wars in the Soviet Union and beyond

Ep. 156: What Russians don’t know about the war in Ukraine

Ep. 157: Former BBC bureau chief Konstantin Eggert and what you need to know about censorship in Russia