Mark Galeotti - The Russian Ways of War are as Likely to Bring Defeat as Victory History Suggests.

GUEST: Mark Galeotti - historian, author, security expert and academic.
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LINKS:
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SPEAKER:
Mark Galeotti is an author and academic – by training an historian – but in practice an interdisciplinary scholar with interests encompassing politics, criminology, security studies, international relations, and anthropology. He is a specialist in transnational and organized crime, security affairs, Russian Politics, Russian History, Intelligence and Security. Mark has a PhD in Government from LSE and has worked as a Senior Lecturer and Head of Department of History at Keele University. He is a Principal Director at Mayak Intelligence, and is an Honorary Professor, SSEES at UCL. He is a Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. He has also been Professor of Global Affairs at New York University from 2009 to 2016.
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BOOKS:
Mark Galeotti: Putin's Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine (2022)
Mark Galeotti: The Weaponisation of Everything: A Field Guide to the New Way of War (2022)
Mark Galeotti: A Short History of Russia: From the Pagans to Putin (2021)
Mark Galeotti: Storm-333: KGB and Spetsnaz seize Kabul, Soviet-Afghan War 1979 (2021)
Mark Galeotti: We Need to Talk About Putin: How the West gets him wrong (2019)
Mark Galeotti: Russian Political War: Moving Beyond the Hybrid (2019)
Mark Galeotti: The Vory: Russia's Super Mafia (2018)
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WAR STUDIES:
Putin Takes Crimea 2014: Grey-zone warfare opens the Russia-Ukraine conflict (2023)
Russia's Five-Day War: The invasion of Georgia, August 2008 (2023)
Afghanistan 1979–88: Soviet air power against the mujahideen (2023)
Teutonic Knight vs Lithuanian Warrior: The Lithuanian Crusade 1283–1435 (2023)
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#markgaleotti #ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #propaganda
#war #disinformation #hybridwarfare #foreignpolicy #communism #sovietunion #postsoviet
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[esakoivuniemi]

Jonathan, you're spot on. I'm from Finland and listening to Mark really gets my blood boiling. Sure, he's knowledgeable, no doubt about it. But understanding Russia isn't just an intellectual exercise. Russian imperialism isn't solely motivated by geopolitics or historical events. Instead, it's fueled by deeply ingrained ideas, beliefs, and values within Russian culture, particularly among the elites. It seems to me that Mark does not take that side of things seriously enough. To be fair, Mark is far from the only Western expert who's well-versed in Russia but still somehow overlooks the most crucial aspects of it.

Cultures change slowly. That's why Russia's behavior is unlikely to change anytime soon. It might take something as monumental as the transformations Germany and Japan underwent after World War II to shake things up in Russia. Until then, it'll likely continue to try and assert its dominance whenever it feels powerful enough to do so.

Well, that's my two cents anyway.

[lynnfern]

Many thanks for inviting Mark Galleotti. He is a superb analyst, & explains everything in a very straightforward manner.

[krikkenstein]

If we would accept that Russia would be able to keep some of its gains, what would assure us that Russia would not take the time to rearm and retry some time later? I think all options where Russia is given something it did not have before is just the best way to ensure that Russia is embolden and will start a new and than probably a much bigger war. All other appeasement arguments seem naive to me…

[peteraschubert]

Galeotti is a clear and insightful thinker. Excellent guest.

[treesetc]

Fantastic interview with excellent questions. I always enjoy listening to Mark G. and yourself speak. Well done on procuring such quality guests.

[markb]

Great guest Mr Fink. Thank you and thank you Mr Galeotti.

[normandduern]

Personally, I especially love the broad and fuzzy questions, and positively savour the long answers. No need to apologize for either. Great episode.

[michaelpierson]

Mark Galeotti has set a laser intellect into my understanding of the Russian geopolitical psyche. One of the best Q&A I've heard in years.

[maxsher]

Fascinating but still... As a person who was born and lived almost my entire life in Russia (not being ethnically Russian though) I can say that none of that arguments citing historical 'strategic Russian feeling of vulnerability' is in fact valid when it comes to the current ruling clique that consists mostly of petty late-Soviet KGB crooks. Yes, Russia was invaded many times in the past but that was in the pre-nuclear era when everything was decided by how much land one can grab militarily. Not a single time was it invaded since the USSR obtained nukes. This argument does not stand the test of reality. The current war in Ukraine is a personal Putin's war for power and influence in the former Soviet/Russian imperial territory, it's a way for Putin to keep power indefinitely in a declining empire and a sort of a personal obsession for him which he managed to impose on his kleptocratic elites (through fear) and wider populace (through fear and propaganda).

[jed]

This channel is so under subscribed - you have the best guests, great insight and humanity.

[richardbrine]

Bloody Hell Jonathan, you do pose some great on the money questions. Thoroughly engaging, and essential discourse, thank you. .

[eliseleonard]

I’m a psychiatrist, not an historian. I would love to hear a conversation about Russia’s relationship to Europe. Since Peter the Great, Russia adopted huge chunks of European culture in an aspirational way, and went on to make brilliant cultural contributions in literature and music, but for a long time Russians were still viewed by Europe as sort of backward hicks (true early on in the case of technology and political organization). So there’s this huge ambivalence, of wanting to be accepted as fully European while also retreating into a wounded pride. I think this drives a lot of the love/envy/hate dynamic. When Putin asserts Russia’s identity even today it’s always in contrast with European identity.

[zaporizhzhya]

The whole argument that Russia has been invaded before is bullshit. Many countries in Europe have been invaded throughout the ages. How many times has Poland been invaded? What about France?

[patobrien]

Monsieur Fink
I have been listening 🎧 to your broadcasting for many months. Thank you for your informative guest list, your intelligent commentary,
the information, context and understanding we gain from your journalism. Chapeau Monsieur (a pre-Brexit salutation. 😂😂)

[simonbowden]

Incredible to hear Mark Galleotti talk about the registration of photocopiers and the ledgers required to prevent the distribution of information, and the cookery book at the time of Tsar Nicholas mentioning the 'free flow of air' being censored. Mark Galleotti is so interesting to listen to on Russia & on life in general

[jrpitcherjr]

When the collapse of the Soviet Union occurred in 1991, there was no threat by any nation to try and advance over their borders and take over their government. We left them to solve their problems internally for the most part as well as assisting them benevolently to help without any political commitments. Does this not negate their insistence and paranoia over other nations trying to take them over?

[alexeyladokhin]

Mr. Galeotti should really stick to the subjects within his substantial expertise (Putin's regime, XX-XXI century military etc) rather than go into history deeper then XIX century. This way he will avoid produce appalling statements like, Russ being "russia" or Ukraine being associated with russian state for most of it's history. russia hijacked name of Russ from Kyiv and Ukrainians spent more time in Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth than in russian state. Hence the differences in many aspects of the two societies. It's a general problem of Westerners consuming russian version of the history. I strongly encourage everyone to listen to Timothy Snyder's Yale course on Ukrainian identity.

[VoidAspect]

Heck yeah, a Mark Galeotti interview with Jonathan Fink. A great Saturday evening

[sspacegunn]

Mark has such a unique knowledge and insight of the russian killer regime.
Always enjoy his interviews. Johnathan, thank you for bringing us these super guests!

[DarkestAlice]

Thank you, Jonathan, for this conversation with Mark Galeotti. I always enjoy the nuanced expertise that he offers.
🇺🇦 Заради життя кожного українця! 🇺🇦