13: The Case of the Missing Tennis Shoe and Other Spooky Stories

In celebration of Halloween (Putin’s least favorite holiday), each guest from Spooky October returns to share their spookiest spy story from life undercover in the CIA. From hiding in cow poop to KGB break-ins, buckle up with Olga and Mo for a haunted hay ride down memory lane with @burgessct, @StephChartell, @john_sipher, and @StevenLHall1.

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12: I Spy: Undercover in Putin’s Russia

On our third episode of Spooky October, Olga and Mo talk with former intelligence officers Steven Hall and John Sipher. Both served long careers at the CIA, leading and managing intelligence operations abroad. Having served for years in Moscow, Steve and John give their unique perspective on US-Russia relations, covering everything from the cold war to Russia’s disinformation campaigns today.

Steven Hall’s Twitter: @StevenLHall1 

John Sipher’s Twitter: @john_sipher 

Olga’s twitter: @OlgaNYC1211

Mo’s twitter: @MoniqueCamarra

Watch Episodes on MeidasTouch’s Youtube and facebook.

Homepage: KremlinFile.com

Meidas Media + bunker crew

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11: Homegrown Terror (Stephanie Hartell)

On our second episode of Spooky October, Olga and Mo interview Stephanie Hartell, the former Chief of CIA’s Counterterrorism Center’s Technical Targeting Group. Stephanie discusses the rise of extremism in America and the eerie similarities between January 6 and what she saw abroad serving in authoritarian countries. 

Find our guest on Twitter: @StephCHartell

KremlinFile.com

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10: Year of the Spy

This October, we will be exclusively interviewing spies to hear about their fascinating, and sometimes spooky lives as undercover agents. Our first guest is Christopher Burgess, the 30+ year veteran of the CIA, who was stationed in the Soviet Union during the Cold War at a time when spies on both sides were selling information to their country’s enemies. 


BIO:

Christopher Burgess is a 30+ year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency and the recipient of the agency’s Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal. He has appeared on CNN, News Nation, BBC, I24, China News, Bloomberg, CBS, NBC, and ABC proving  his perspective on global security issues.He has also lectured and presented before government, academic, and business organizations around the world for the past 15 years. 

Christopher’s Twitter: @burgessct

Christopher’s Website: burgessct.com

9: Influence Operations

We’ve touched on spies but never before have we discussed Kremlin spy operations like this. Edward Lucas joins Olga and Mo to discuss how and why Russian intelligence operations pose a unique danger to democracy.   

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 four books: The New Cold War (2008, newly revised and republished); Deception (2011); The Snowden Operation (2014), and Cyberphobia (2015).

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

Edward’s Liberal Democrats Campaign Site for Cities of London & Westminster: https://www.edwardlucas.com/volunteer 

KremlinFile.com

Watch the Video Podcast on MeidasTouch’s Facebook: https://facebook.com/watch/104614641200137/1560647640940478/  

Olga’s twitter: @OlgaNYC1211

Mo’s twitter: @MoniqueCamarra

Meidas Media + bunker crew

BetterHelp Sponsor Discount: https://betterhelp.com/kremlinfile 

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8: Lukashenko: Crisis in Belarus

Belarus has drawn international condemnation in recent months for President Lukashenko’s horrid human rights abuses and callous rule. Mo and Olga speak with expert journalist and CEPA fellow, Tadeusz Giczan, to discuss Lukashenko’s brutal regime, the recent events in Belarus, and Tadeusz’s experience on the ground fighting.

Tadeusz’s Twitter: @TadeuszGiczan

KremlinFile.com

Olga’s twitter: @OlgaNYC1211

Mo’s twitter: @MoniqueCamarra

Meidas Media + bunker crew 

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7: Dying for Democracy

With the Russian Duma Elections being held this Sunday, September 19, Olga and Mo wanted to do a special episode. Instead of giving attention to the corrupt, rigged election process in Russia, the hosts decided to use this episode to honor fallen activists and journalists who have been killed trying to stop corruption in Russia and expose truth. They are joined by prominent Russian reporter, Karina Orlova, who was forced to flee her home in Russia after receiving death threats. 

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6: Spies, Lies, and Poison

Olga and Mo are joined by Mark Krutov and Mike Eckel to spill the (polonium) tea on the various Russian intelligence services and their respective operations from hacking to poisoning…

Mark Krutov’s Twitter: @kromark 

Mike Eckel’s Twitter: @Mike_Eckel

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4: Hybrid Warfare: How to Blur the Lines

What do explosions in the Czech Republic, a Bulgarian arms dealer, and fascist memes in Ukraine have in common? Let’s find out!

Mo and Olga are joined by Heather Conley and Jakub Janda to discuss the clear and present dangers of Russian hybrid warfare in eastern Europe.

Heather’s Kremlin Playbook: https://bnkr.la/CSIS-KremlinPlaybook2

Jakub’s Twitter: @_JakubJanda

Olga’s twitter: @OlgaNYC1211 

Mo’s twitter: @MoniqueCamarra 

KremlinFile.com 

MeidasTouch + bunker crew

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3: Bill Browder, Putin’s Enemy No. 1

3: Bill Browder, Putin’s Enemy No. 1

Olga and Mo welcome Bill Browder, who shares the story of Sergei Magnitsky’s murder, his vow for justice against the Kremlin, and his rise to the top of Putin’s kill list.

Bill Browder

Bill Browder, Founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005. Since 2009, when his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was murdered in prison after uncovering a $230 million fraud committed by Russian government officials, Browder has been leading a campaign to expose Russia’s endemic corruption and human rights abuses. Browder lobbied for Congress to pass the Magnitsky Act, a law that imposes visa bans and asset freezes on human rights abusers, which was signed into law in 2012. In 2015, Browder published New York Times best seller, Red Notice.

2: Yuri Felshtinsky, KGB Nation

2: Yuri Felshtinsky, KGB Nation

Olga and Mo are joined by one of Putin’s Most Wanted, Yuri Felshtinsky, who co-authored the book “Blowing Up Russia” with Alexander Litvinenko – the former Lieutenant Colonel in the FSB who was poisoned with radioactive polonium in London in 2006. Yuri peels back the layers of Putin and the Russian Secret Service, exposing the nature of the KGB and their campaign to defeat the democratic world. But first, Olga and Mo discuss the current situation unfolding in Belarus, with Olympic athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya forced to seek asylum in Poland, and the murder of dissident Vitaly Shishov in Ukraine.

Yuri Felshtinsky

Yuri Felshtinsky is a Russian historian and author born in Moscow and now living in the United States. In the late 90’s, Yuri became acquainted with Alexander Litnvinenko, a Lieutenant Colonel of the FSB who had cut his ties with the establishment for which he had worked for over twenty years. In 2000, Felshtinsky and Litvinenko began collaborating on a book detailing the FSB’s involvement in the Russian Apartment Building Bombings from 1994-1999, which led up to Litvenenko’s assassination in London in November 2006. The book they co-authored, “Blowing Up Russia,” was ultimately banned in Russia but published in twenty different countries and made into a documentary film. Felshtinsky’s latest publications include “The Corporation: Russia and the KGB in the Age of President Putin” (2008); “The KGB Plays Chess” (2010); “Lenin and His Comrades” (2010).

1: Masha Gessen, the Rise of Putin

1: Masha Gessen, the Rise of Putin

Olga and Mo journey back to the 90’s with Russian-born journalist Masha Gessen who describes their odd introduction to Vladimir Putin by way of Saint Petersburg and beyond.

MASHA GESSEN

Masha Gessen is a staff writer for the New Yorker and the author of eleven books, including “Surviving Autocracy” and “The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia,” which won the National Book Award in 2017. Gessen has written about Russia, autocracy, L.G.B.T. rights, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump, among others, for The New York Review of Books and the New York Times. On a parallel track, Gessen has been a science journalist, writing about aids, medical genetics, and mathematics; famously, Gessen was dismissed as editor of the Russian popular-science magazine Vokrug Sveta for refusing to send a reporter to observe Putin hang-gliding with the Siberian cranes.

Trailer

MeidasTouch presents: KREMLIN FILE

Hosted by renowned researcher Olga Lautman and political activist Monique Camarra, KREMLIN FILE takes audiences on a riveting journey through the rise of Putin and the spread of authoritarianism across the globe and into the Trump White House. Featuring interviews with Masha Gessen, Yuri Felshtinsky, Bill Browder, and Craig Unger, Season One dives head first into Putin’s Russia and their ongoing active measures campaign around the world.

Olga’s twitter: @OlgaNYC1211 

Mo’s twitter: @MoniqueCamarra 

@KremlinFile

KremlinFile.com 

Meidas Media + bunker crew

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