I have been listening intently to a number of podcasts because of the war in Ukraine. One that is not mainly on the daily “progress” of the war, but rather from a higher perspective is The Ezra Klein Show from New York Times. I cannot recommend the episode with Timothy Snyder enough, for three reasons.
One, it gives insight into the historical relationship (and lack of) between Russia and Ukraina and how Putin perceives this.
Secondly, he asks what the democratic world would have done if the Ukrainians had laid down their weapons, the leadership fled the country and been easily subdued by the Russian army? What kind of anxious, existential crisis wouldn’t have taken place in Europe and North America? What criticizm would have been heard about the crisis of democracy, its’ inept ability to handle wars, to counter the deceptive and skilled authoritarian regimes?
Third, Snyder says that every day the Ukrainians fight, they fight for the rest of us in the democratic countries. They give us a better chance to practicing democracy, of thinking about what a future we want for ourselves and others.
Another guest on the same podcast is Masha Gessen, who discusses Putin’s rather twisted historical perspective on Ukraine and Russia. They have written a book on Russia that can be seen as interlinked with Snyder – Putin lives in the past, we must conquer the future.