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Olga and Mo welcome back Edward Lucas to discuss how Vladimir Putin weaponizes food shortages and hunger to leverage support against Ukraine. 

Edward Lucas is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). He was formerly a senior editor at The Economist. Lucas has covered Central and Eastern European affairs since 1986, writing, broadcasting, and speaking on the politics, economics, and security of the region. He is the author of five books: The New Cold War (2008, revised and republished in 2014); Deception (2011); The Snowden Operation (2014), Cyberphobia (2015), and Spycraft Rebooted: How Technology is Changing Espionage (2018). 

Edward’s Website: edwardlucas.com 

Edward’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/edwardlucas 

Edward’s column for @cepa “Hunger Games”: https://cepa.org/hunger-games/ 

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Olga and Mo are joined by Dr. Benjamin Schmitt to discuss the Kremlin’s weaponization of energy and the proper response from NATO. 

Dr. Benjamin L. Schmitt is a former State Department official, Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), and Research Fellow at Harvard University. For years, Ben has spoken out against Nord Stream 2 (the gas pipeline expansion project from Russia to Germany) and warned of the threat to Europe’s energy security. 

https://twitter.com/BLSchmitt 

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Originally aired September 2nd, 2021

Olga and Mo are joined by Paul Niland and Daria Kaleniuk to continue their exploration of hybrid warfare. They discuss how Ukraine became the testing ground for Putin’s campaign against the west, only to emerge as the standard-bearer in the fight against corruption.  

Daria Kaleniuk is co-founder and executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, a powerful national organization that has shaped Ukraine’s anti-corruption legislation and efforts. Daria’s organization ensured that Ukraine’s newly elected parliament designed strong anti-corruption legislation, including the laws on the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the special anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, High Anticorruption Court, open property registers and electronic asset declarations. Daria has also founded critical resources to track money laundering and corruption internationally, specifically first known public register of national politically exposed persons. She is co-founder of international Democracy in Action conference hold annually in Ukraine seeking solutions to global threats to democracy. Twitter: @dkaleniuk 

Paul Niland is a businessman, writer, and political commentator. His passion for Ukraine stems from his involvement in the revolutions of 2004/5 and 2013/4, and his writings about Ukraine are often focused on helping the international community better understand the reasons for and background behind the ongoing war in the Donbas, as well as Ukraine in general. Paul is the Founder at Lifeline Ukraine, the country’s first, national, professional, 24/7 suicide prevention and mental health support service. Initially, Lifeline Ukraine was established to address one of the most serious questions in Ukraine today, the heartbreaking suicide rate in Ukraine’s veterans community.Twitter: @PaulNiland 

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Olga and Mo are joined again by David Kramer as they consider the wider security and humanitarian implications should Russia’s war of aggression continue and expand to other areas of the region, including Moldova, Transnistria, and Georgia. David J. Kramer is the Bradford M. Freeman managing director for global policy at the George W. Bush Institute and served as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor in the George W. Bush administration.

AG1 Sponsor Promo: https://athleticgreens.com/kremlinfile 

Recommended articles from David Kramer: 

https://www.thebulwark.com/putin-is-failing-in-ukraine-but-winning-in-georgia/ 

https://www.bushcenter.org/catalyst/ukraine/kramer-never-underestimate-ukrainians.html

https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/defeating-putin-in-ukraine-is-vital-to-the-future-of-democracy/ 

https://thedispatch.com/p/dont-let-lukashenko-off-the-hook?s=r 

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Olga and Mo are joined by retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman to discuss Ukraine as the defenders of democracy and Russia’s failing military strategy.

As a child, Vindman was born to Jewish parents in Ukraine (former Soviet Ukraine) before emigrating to Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood. The former Director for European Affairs for the United States National Security Council found himself at the center of a firestorm for his decision to report the infamous phone call that led to President Donald Trump’s impeachment. He was appointed as the Pritzker Military Foundation’s first Pritzker Military Fellow. His memoir “Here, Right Matters: An American Story” is a must read. https://twitter.com/AVindman 

https://alexandervindmanbook.com/ 

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Olga and Mo welcome on the pod a leading expert in nuclear conflict resolution, Joseph Cirincione. Most Americans have not thought much about doomsday weapons since the end of the Cold War, but now it’s time we all come to terms with the nuclear risks of Putin’s war in Ukraine.

Joseph Cirincione is a distinguished fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington, D.C. He previously served for over 12 years as the president of the Ploughshares Fund with a focus on nuclear nonproliferation and conflict resolution. 

https://twitter.com/Cirincione  

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/author/jcirincione/

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Olga and Mo are joined by veteran diplomat and former ambassador of Poland, Daniel Fried, who currently serves as a distinguished fellow with the Atlantic Council.  

In the course of his forty-year Foreign Service career, Ambassador Fried played a key role in designing and implementing American policy in Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union. As Special Assistant and NSC Senior Director for Presidents Clinton and Bush, Ambassador to Poland, and Assistant Secretary for Europe, he helped craft the policy of NATO enlargement to Central European nations and, in parallel, NATO-Russia relations. Twitter: @AmbDanFried 

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