Hello everyone,
Buckle up! With Kursk still in the news and the Ukrainian offensive still in high gear, I decided to obtain a Russian perspective on the ongoing military actions inside Russia. In this podcast, I will be discussing the Russian reaction to Ukraine’s recent Kursk offensive and how Russian President Vladimir Putin is handling the crisis.
Now over a week old the Russian government has been quite slow to react to the offensive as Ukrainian forces advance deeper into Russia’s Kursk province. Kyiv is now claiming it has seized 1,000 kilometers of Russian territory.
On August 14, another 6 villages fell to advancing Ukrainian forces. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been extremely slow to respond to the invasion calling Russian operations to evict the Ukrainian force from Kursk “a counter-terrorist operation to eradicate the Nazi Banderites.”
Kursk carries great historical significance in the Soviet Union’s vast mythology built around this battle fought 81 years ago this month which was one of the largest tank battles of the Second World War and certainly a major turning point in world history.
Military and security experts around the world continue to closely watch how President Putin handles this crisis which comes on the heels of the ill-fated 2023 Prigozin mutiny, now over a year old.
Joining me to discuss these events in Russia will be Dr. Pavel Luzin a well-known Russian expert who is a Visiting Scholar in the Russia and Eurasia Program at The Fletcher School of Global Affairs at Tufts University.
Pavel will be assessing the Russian reaction to the crisis and how President Putin is handling the ongoing Ukrainian offensive and the triumvirate of power he has given to the host of Russian officials assigned to deal with the crisis.
Episode 3: Assessing Putin's Response to Ukraine’s Kursk Offensive