It's an alternative reality.
It's a world where Hitler was a good guy until 1941; where the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was a defensive move by a pacifist Kremlin; where the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia protected that country from fascists and a NATO invasion; where Ukraine isn't really a country.
It's a parallel universe where the U.S.S.R. never really broke up at all.
Welcome to Vladimir Putin's History Channel, where the past is a weapon to control the present and master the future.
In this week's Power Vertical Podcast, we look at the Kremlin's legislation, regulation, and manipulation of history -- and what this is doing to Russian society.
Joining me are Kirill Kobrin, editor of the Moscow-based history and sociology magazine Neprikosnovenny Zapas; and Andreas Umland, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation and a professor of Russian and Ukrainian history at Kyiv Mohyla Academy.
Enjoy...
Listen to or download the podcast above or subscribe to The Power Vertical Podcast on iTunes.