December 28, 2025: The Kremlin's Year in Review
Russia Decoded by Center for the National Interest
S1 · E5
Dec 30, 2025
50:30
Episode notes
As 2025 draws to a close, Vesti Nedeli delivers a confident verdict on Vladimir Putin's leadership: the Russian president remains unbowed by Western pressure. State media portrays Europeans as exhausted "piglets" dependent on U.S. sponsorship, while Putin himself is calm, patient and resilient in his phone call with Donald Trump on Ukraine. In this episode, Andy Kuchins and Chris Monday explore what this carefully curated narrative reveals about the Kremlin's image-making, and whether a new national ideology is taking shape.
Keywords
andrew kuchins
chris monday