This is an audio transcript of the Rachman Review podcast episode: ‘Why Russians are still backing Putin’
Gideon Rachman
Hello and welcome to the Rachman Review. I’m Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs commentator of the Financial Times. This week’s podcast is about the future of Russia. My guest is Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, based in Berlin. ‘Sasha’, as he’s known to his friends, used to live in Moscow, but he left shortly after Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Two and a half years after that invasion, Russia’s still bogged down in fighting and Ukrainian forces have made a bold incursion into Russian territory through the Kursk offensive. So what’s the mood in Putin’s Russia and how long is this war likely to last?