Foreign Office with Michael Weiss

By Free Russia Foundation and New Lines Magazine

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Description

Foreign Office is a weekly interview podcast hosted by Michael Weiss, from New Lines Magazine and Free Russia Foundation, dedicated to those ever-relevant subjects of Russian intelligence operations and active measures. Featured guests include prominent historians and scholars, journalists, diplomats, and ex-spies.

Episode Date
#72. Mykola Bielieskov on Bakhmut and much more
2887
Michael Weiss discusses the strategic importance of Bakhmut and the large Ukrainian military strategy with Mykola Bielieskov, Research Fellow at National Institute for Strategic Studies under UA President/senior analyst at Come Back Alive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 23, 2023
Foreign Office #71. Kinzinger on 1/6, Ukraine and the GOP
3358
The former Illinois Representative talks war — both abroad and at home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 13, 2023
Foreign Office #70. Prigozhin and Wagner and Trolls—Oh My
3687
Renee DiResta of the Stanford Internet Observatory on the latest attempts to retcon Russia’s election interference Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 21, 2023
Foreign Office #69. The View from Kyiv
3674
Yahoo contributor James Rushton and 'The Killer in the Kremlin' John Sweeney on covering the war from Ukraine and what to expect next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 15, 2023
Foreign Office #68. Will Ukraine Get F-16s?
2613
U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jahara Matisek explains the debate around sending Western jets to Kyiv. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 06, 2023
Foreign Office #67. Why Russia's War Is In Even Worse Shape Than It Looks
2264
Eliot Cohen, Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, explains why he's optimistic Ukraine will win. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 30, 2023
Foreign Office #66. “Putin’s Folly”
4024
Author Owen Mathews on his latest book Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin’s War Against Ukraine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 23, 2023
Foreign Office #65. On Ukraine's Military Adaptability
2518
Gen. Mick Ryan explains how Ukraine has handled Western weapons platforms, and why it's wisely gone back to a war of "corrosion" against Russian forces. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 08, 2022
Foreign Office #64. The Kyvian Reshuffle
1981
What’s behind Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s sacking of his SBU chief and Prosecutor General? Ukrainian journalist Viktor Kovalenko explains. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 01, 2022
Foreign Office #63. The Fellas of NAFO
2154
 How a dog avatar became a meme that chased a Russian ambassador off Twitter (for a while). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 26, 2022
Foreign Office #62. On Coups and Illegals
3601
Former CIA officer Marc Polymeropolous discusses the capture of a GRU illegal trying to infiltrate the ICC -- and whether or not former National Security Adviser John Bolton could really plan a "coup." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 21, 2022
Foreign Office #61. The Battle of Donbas
2990
War reporter Danny Gold on his time at Ukraine’s eastern front Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 02, 2022
Foreign Office #60. What is Wrong With Germany?
3509
Benjamin Tallis explains the Sholz government's wobbliness on Ukraine and why old habits die hard in Berlin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 26, 2022
Foreign Office #59. How Mapmaking Explains Conflicts
3305
Nathan Ruser combined open source intelligence and cartography to offer a more precise and explanatory visual of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 16, 2022
Foreign Office #58. What Ukraine Has -- And What It Still Needs
2334
James Rushton, an independent national security analyst, on the Western weapons systems sent to help Ukraine defend the Donbas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 10, 2022
Foreign Office #57. The Russian Dissident in Jail
1536
Evgenia Kara-Murza talks about her husband Vladimir's latest arrest in Moscow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 13, 2022
Foreign Office #56. How Military Analysts Got Russia's War So Wrong
3172
Phillips O'Brien, a professor a strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews, on why so many overestimated Russia's military capability. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 04, 2022
Foreign Office #55. On Ukraine's Non-Neutrality
2004
Olexander Scherba, Ukraine's former ambassador to Vienna, on why his country will never be like Austria. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 16, 2022
Foreign Office #54. Putin’s Purge
2016
Russian journalists Andrei Soldatov on how the FSB’s Fifth Service is taking the blame for failure in Ukraine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 13, 2022
Foreign Office #53. On Defending Kyiv
1729
Pavlo Kalyuk, the community organizer for Podil, explains why he isn't leaving Ukraine's besieged capital. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 07, 2022
Foreign Office #52. Our Man in Kyiv
1595
British journalist John Sweeney reports from Ukraine's besieged capital. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 02, 2022
Foreign Office #51. The view from Ukraine
2320
Agnieszka Legucka recently returned from Eastern Ukraine, offers her perspective of what happens next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 23, 2022
Foreign Office #50. Information war as a prelude to real war
3460
Peter Pomerantsev and Vladislav Davidson discuss the messaging about an intending Russian invasion of Ukraine.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 23, 2022
Foreign Office #49. Russia Prepares the Battlespace in Ukraine
2799
Hybrid War Expert Liubov Tsybulska on how Russia’s “imminent” invasion is already underway. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 07, 2022
Foreign Office #48. A Likely Attack
2760
Robert Lee, a Russian military analyst, says Putin's buildup at Ukraine's borders means only one thing: an invasion is coming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 24, 2022
Foreign Office #47. The Crisis in Kazakhstan
2822
Human rights lawyer Steve Swerdlow and scholar Diana Kudaibergenova on the recent turmoil in the Central Asian republic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 10, 2022
Foreign Office #46. Putin’s Expendables
2772
Journalists Holger Roonemaa and Mattias Carlsson discuss their joint investigation with @foreignoffpod into the notorious Russian mercenary corps. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 30, 2021
Foreign Office #45. The Case Against Assange
3021
National security attorney Mark Zaid explains the US government’s indictments of the Wikileaks founder, history of the Espionage Act, and why this case is unique. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 20, 2021
Foreign Office #44. The State of Iraq
2799
Newlines Institute senior analyst Rasha Al Qeedi dissects the results of the last election and how the country has changed since America's invasion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 31, 2021
Foreign Office #43. Once Bitten, Twice Bold
3613
Ambassador Daniels Fried on why the US keeps making the same mistakes with Russia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 28, 2021
Foreign Office #42. How the Kremlin Manipulates the Anti-Money Laundering System
3681
Attorney Jonathan Reich explains how financial safeguards against criminality are being used to target Russian dissidents and exiles from Putin's regime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 18, 2021
Foreign Office #41. Why the American Right Loves Orban
2760
Hungarian writer Peter Kreko explains how a Central European country of ten million became the lodestar for a new breed of North American conservative. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 01, 2021
Foreign Office #40. Our Own Worst Enemy
3105
Atlantic contributor and USA Today columnist Tom Nichols discusses America's political and cultural dysfunction, and why there may not be a cure. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 31, 2021
Foreign Office #39. The Geopolitics of the New Afghanistan
1841
A scholar and expert on Afghanistan Kamran Bokhari explains how various countries will respond to the Taliban takeover, and what to do about ISIS-K. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 30, 2021
Foreign Office #38. ISIS-K and the Taliban: It's Complicated
2529
Former US Army intelligence officer Michael Pregent on the terrorist threat from Afghanistan in the wake of two horrific suicide bombings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 28, 2021
Foreign Office #37. Crisis and Credibility
1961
Mike Nelson, a U.S. war veteran and visiting fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University, discusses the pullout from Afghanistan. And America's place in the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 20, 2021
Foreign Office #36. America's Abandoned Allies
2195
Journalist and author Wesley Morgan explains how Afghans integral to the U.S. war effort have been left to a grim fate in a Taliban-run country. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 18, 2021
Foreign Office #35. Afghanistan, Before and After the Americans
3138
Afghanistan scholar and professor at the US Naval Postgraduate School Thomas Johnson explains how America bungled its longest war. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 17, 2021
Foreign Office #34. Why Vladimir Milov Is Optimistic
2862
Russia's former deputy energy minister discusses the political situation in Russia, and why Putin isn't as strong as he looks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 13, 2021
Foreign Office #33. Tales from Odessa
1949
Author Vladislav Davidzon on a decade of writing about (and for) Ukraine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 11, 2021
Foreign Office #32. The Biden-Russia Conundrum
2547
Veteran Russia expert James Sherr discusses the recent policy pivot on Nord Stream 2, and what the West doesn't understand when dealing with Moscow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 04, 2021
Foreign Office #31. Sorge's Way
2998
Historian and biographer Owen Mathews on how Soviet master spy Richard Sorge infiltrated the Third Reich. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 21, 2021
Foreign Office #30. The Silent Weapon
2288
Former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos on being a victim of directed energy attacks, U.S. Russian relations, and his new book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 21, 2021
Foreign Office #29. The View from Vilnius
1923
Former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicious discusses Belarus's hijacking of a commercial plane, and what the West needs to do about Minsk (and Moscow). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 26, 2021
Foreign Office #28. A KGB Kidnapping
1738
Andrei Sannikov, a former Belarusian presidential candidate, explains Alexander Lukashenko's crazy plot to arrest a journalist by hijacking a RyanAir plane. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 24, 2021
Foreign Office #27. Microwaves and Bounties
2431
National security reporter Tom Rogan on why the CIA isn't giving up on the GRU 'bounties' claim, and on alleged directed energy attacks against Americans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 19, 2021
Foreign Office #26. Explosions and Expulsions
2179
Czech analyst Jakub Janda on how Russian state terrorism on NATO soil has upended Prague's relationship with Moscow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 05, 2021
Foreign Office #25. A 21st Century SMERSH
1621
Bellingcat's Christo Grozev on what the latest disclosures out of Bulgaria and Czechia tell us about GRU Unit 29155. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 04, 2021
Foreign Office #24. The Professor and “Ivan”
2738
Nerma Jelacic, director of External Relations and Communications at Commission for International Justice and Accountability, explains how her NGO unmasked a Russian-back disinformation network on Syria — by pretending to be a Russian spy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 26, 2021
Foreign Office #23. Of “Kostya” and Collusion
2399
RFE/RL’s Mike Eckel explains how the latest US sanctions on Russia advance what Mueller alleged about the Trump campaign’s ties to Moscow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 19, 2021
Foreign Office #22. Will Russia Invade Ukraine (Again)?
2490
USIP Russia Director Don Jensen weighs the possible reason for Russia’s military buildup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 12, 2021
Foreign Office #21. Strategic Miscommunication
2502
Analyst Monika Richter explains how Chinese government threats got an EU report on COVID-19 disinformation censored. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 29, 2021
Foreign Office #20. Disinformation and Its Discontents
3037
Johns Hopkins scholar and “Active Measures” author Thomas Rid on the DNI report on Russian meddling and how 2020 is different from 2016. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 22, 2021
Foreign Office #19. When a Hack is not an Attack
2888
Wired journalist Andy Greenberg on the SolarWinds hack and why cyberespionage is not cyber warfare. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 15, 2021
Foreign Office #18. The Pipeline from Hell
2742
Benjamin Schmitt, an energy security expert, argues Nord Stream 2 can and should be cancelled. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 08, 2021
Foreign Office #17. Canceling Navalny
2011
Russian journalist Yevgenia Albats — on Amnesty International’s decision to revoke Navalny’s prisoner of conscious status. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 25, 2021
Foreign Office #16. Mr. Jones and Me
2510
Andrea Chalupa, screenwriter of "Mr. Jones," on what inspired her to memorialize the journalist who uncovered Ukraine's terror-famine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 23, 2021
Foreign Office #15. What the Borrell Was He Thinking?
2129
Senior Fellow at the European Values Center for Security Policy Nathalie Vogel on why the EU let the Kremlin humiliate it — again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 15, 2021
Foreign Office #14. Beirut Blues
2253
The deputy editor of Newlines magazine Faysal Itani on the murder of Lebanese activist Lokman Slim and what America can and cannot do in the Middle East. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 08, 2021
Foreign Office #13. The KGB's "Confidential Contacts"
2486
Former CIA Officer John Sipher discusses the grey area between Russian informant and Russian agent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 04, 2021
Foreign Office #12. The People v. Julian Assange
2323
Journalist Marcy Wheeler explains the U.S. government's charges against the Wikileaks founder, and why Britain refused to extradite him to America to face them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jan 14, 2021
Foreign Office #11. How to Catch a Russian Assassin
3158
Christo Grozev, the Bellingcat journalist who unmasked Alexey Navalny’s hit squad, explains how he did it, and what it says about Putin’s security state. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 19, 2020
#10. America in a Post-Trump World
2913
Foreign policy analyst Damir Marusic on why a Biden presidency won't necessarily change much. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 17, 2020
#9. Resets, Be Gone!
1707
Former Biden adviser and Russia expert Michael Carpenter discusses his coauthored articles with President-Elect Joe Biden and what to expect from the new administration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 08, 2020
#8. Unfrozen Conflict
1709
Award-winning journalist Simon Ostrovsky reports from Nagorno-Karabakh Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 01, 2020
#7. The View from Europe
2768
As Joe Biden crept to victory, Estonia's former President Toomas Henrik Ilves explained how much of Europe saw this election -- and what it expects and (doesn't expect) from America going forward Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 11, 2020
#6. Thumping Out Sandworm
1971
FireEye's John Hultquist explains the U.S. government's newly unsealed indictment about the GRU's devastating hacking operations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 26, 2020
#5. CIA v KGB: How American and Russian political warfare differs -- and how it doesn't
1362
Tim Weiner, the acclaimed historian of the CIA, discusses his new book on American-Russian political warfare, from the Cold War till now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 19, 2020
#4. Second Time As Farce: How a Russian-Backed Operation in Ukraine to Sway the 2020 U.S. Election Came Undone
1705
Time magazine's Simon Shuster discusses the ongoing Kremlin disinformation campaign involving individuals sanctioned by the U.S. Government Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 12, 2020
#3. Double Trouble: Who and What Poisoned Vladimir Kara-Murza?
1650
In this episode, Vladimir Kara-Murza, vice president of Free Russia Foundation, recounts his own poisoning (twice) while traveling in Russia and what the FBI will has and hasn't told him about what it knows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 01, 2020
#2. Russia's history of poisonings
1839
Russian journalists Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan discuss Russia's history of poisonings in light of the Navalny case and why the use of a signature toxin such as Novichok implicates Vladimir Putin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 28, 2020
#1. How Austria became Europe’s spy capital
1419
In our pilot episode, Michael interviews Anton Shekhovtsov, an expert on the European far-right and the Russian government's ties to it. They discuss their jointly written essay for The Daily Beast, drawn from a still-classified KGB training manual, about the false-flag recruitment of an adviser to the Austrian chancellery in the late 1950s and early 1960s by a particularly resourceful Soviet double agent "Safo." Also, the stunning revelations about a Wirecard executive, Austria's first expulsion of a Russian intelligence officer, and why Vienna has the well-earned reputation of being the spy capital of Europe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 21, 2020