This extended Frontline interview with The Atlantic’s Julia Ioffe is extremely informative. This is probably more than you wanted to know about Vladimir Putin, but it’s helpful to understand how Russian-style politics has taken root here in the US.
The Guardian on The World Tomorrow
Julian Assange kicked off his television show on Russia Today interviewing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The Guardian doesn’t pull any punches:
There is a long dishonourable tradition of western intellectuals who have been duped by Moscow. The list includes Bernard Shaw, the Webbs, HG Wells and André Gide. So Assange—whether for idealistic reasons, or simply out of necessity, given his legal bills and fight against extradition to Sweden—isn’t the first. But The World Tomorrow confirms he is no fearless revolutionary. Instead he is a useful idiot.