Exiled Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar on Putin and the war in Ukraine

Mikhail Zygar is the founding editor of TV Rain, Russia’s only independent news station, whose journalists were forced to go into exile last year. Zygar joins The Post’s Shane Harris to discuss his new book, “War and Punishment,” about Russia’s historical attitudes to Ukraine, Putin’s grip on power and the fallout from Yevgeniy Prigozhin’s failed rebellion.
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[@GeorgeVorobiov]

This is a brilliant and timely book, It does take a lot of courage and intellectual honesty to write a volume like that.

[@chrisbremner8992]

This guy better check his tea for polonium and his underpants for Novichok.

[@danaoakton1048]

Who needs this PofS

[@nancymoore8026]

Please consider Alexander Mercouris of the Duran. Thank you.

[@arlinsonaja4642]

É UM JORNALECO AMERICANIZADO

[@tamaliaalisjahbana6849]

This is a brave man. I hope he survives. He clearly loves his country and his people.

[@I_Fight_Instacart]

Actually, he's a *gAy* man. Russia deserves credit for driving him out of their country.

[@chrisbremner8992]

We USA paid " dissidents" needed to leave Russia to continue to get our CIA supplied pay because of sanctions..

[@tamaliaalisjahbana6849]

How much does Russia pay its trolls? Is it per word or per paragraph?

[@mystripeysocks]

The "serious" background music is too intense and distracting. I'd listen to the whole interview if it weren't for the music.

[@ant-space]

What music? None to be heard.

[@annab8766]

You are founded "good place" to blame your cantry. Why you are don't ask your interviews how many cantry his gaverment occupied.

[@BobQuigley]

Too many Americans have fallen into the exceptional nation black hole. Know little to nothing outside of our own geographic very localized knowledge and experience. Tendency to cut and paste that knowledge into the greater world of 8 billion precious humans with 80 million net new humans arriving annually. We also demean and degrade the love of country as it's expressed by citizens of other nations particularly when it comes to our large list of enemies dujour. In case of Russia it's been invaded many many times over last few centuries alone. WW1 Germans killed 1,5 million. WW2 27 million soviets were slaughtered many were Russian. Yet we immediately decided they'd be our lifelong enemies. Had they not stopped Germans (let's not hide behind blaming the leaders, German citizens did the cruel deeds) we'd be speaking German. At fall of USSR Gorbachev Yeltsin even Putin made it clear NATO would not be allowed to create a noose around Russia. At the time US reassured this would not occur. Of course we were lying. Citizens do express a love for Mother Russia. China no different after suffering 140 years of humiliation imposed by the west. Of course Putin is a war criminal and must be held to account. US blindness to Bush's even more catastrophic barbaric illegal war with Iraq along with occupying Afghanistan for 20 years makes him a war criminal. This geopolitical stupidity inherited from the most cruel of all empires, Great Britain, is a dead end for civilization in 2023. New forms of government and governance must come into existence if we hope to at least bend the curve on the growing poly crisis we're in today. Thanks for enlightening conversation!

[@foggynotion]

You left out a little detail. Russia keeps trying to wipe us (Ukrainians) out through genocide, murder, torture, and annihilation of our culture. You speak of western blind spots. I suggest you pick up a mirror.

[@teardrop-in-a-fishbowl]

Not many people know and less people can come to the right conclusion about others. Ones own history is always glorious, self-centred and with good will. Being a old lad,grown up in East Germany half my life and were taught more of Russians history than Germanies, I always was suspicious. The US was always the bad imperialist, of course Britain too and the Soviet Union and all the satellite states like ours was were the goodies. On one hand I got it,on the other hand the hailing of "our antiimperialistic and peace loving nature" and what we have achieved brought me mentally in trouble. Because! Born in the early sixties and having access to West German TV,also many uncles there which took vacation here, I could compare. I pretty fast realised something sinister is going on. And then the House of Cards broke down, me serving in the military (later on also in the "united" Bundeswehr too) and had to "protect" the "country". I was stationed in Dresden at that time where Putin served as KGB officer. Funny that. What I wanted to say is that "understanding Russia" and Putin is a topic for hours and not many people can emphasize it. One can read books over books but not necessary gets to the core and understanding. People are easy to fool, to manipulate and they think and live that lie for decades, it's their lie but also their life. Not to play down what Russia had to endure,but the exploitation and lies told are deeply rooted in Russian heads, unhealthy and poisonous! The sacrifices our grandfathers made and the guilt they bear aren't ours and shouldn't be the core of our thinking and celebrations. Don't forget but also don't elaborate yourself on that and don't feel guilty. Someone said "There's no nationalism in the US, that's why we don't understand that of Russia (and others)." I disagree very much on that, but that's another topic that can fill a evening of discussion. It's these lies what has been told in classrooms,or rather that was isn't taught. Self-deception and manipulation is real, everywhere where interests are being lifted and the truth been hidden. Germany,after those wars of shame, did a great job. Kids get what's necessary to be told. But on the other hand, these years of shame are exploited for political reasons and German nationalism is on the rise again because of that. Remember the "cause of WW2" (not that of Hitler but the people backing him), what the Germans had to endure after ww1, as the ONLY guilty nation. Don't get me wrong German Empire was the main actor and was guilty af, but other players got away and France wanted a Germany on its knees, forever. Hitlers rise,adopting a Austrian refugee as head of the nation, was a)clever managed and b) the result of "new national pride/nationalism". And Russians? They did only know what has been told from "above", accepted this and made a living of that. Russians never opened the window,let fresh air in the brain and thought "It wasn't like that. We're guilty of colonising by force and killings. History is different than what's being told and we must take and bear that guilt and shame."

[@ant-space]

Russia invaded a country because of imperialism, and meanwhile sinking into fascism. Yes, America invaded countries because of strategic and economic interests. That was bad. But! Ukraine will be erased if conquered. It's no good to complain of our past deeds. Russia is destroying Ukraine Now! Ukraine needs our full support!

[@saksonarudaviciene7973]

If you say that you know Russia’s history would you like to tell us about Molotov- Ribbentrop Pakt and the secret protocols? How Hitler and Stalin made plans to conquer and share Central and East Europe? Or why Soviet Union lost so many of its citizens in the IIWW? Stalin didn’t care about human life loss ( the same as Putin today) . Russia’s apologists love spreading lies victimising Russia, but keep quiet about Russias’s bloody past and the way Russia’s imperialistic regimes treated/continue treating their own citizens, the neighbouring countries, what they did with the civilians in the countries that they were occupying( they have got a ‘better’ word for it, they call it annexation) - they were doing the same stuff as they do today in Ukraine ( killing, raping, stealing, starving, imprisoning).

[@lanabond9014]

Trader Russia have a future and You don’t !