Welcome back to Media Roots Radio. This is Abby Martin.

Welcome everybody. This is Robbie Martin. Welcome, everybody.

This is Robbie Martin.

So let's get into this.

I mean, one of the things that we wanted to really focus in on this podcast is a documentary that we both just watched that was completely mind-blowing.

Called the Magninsky Act Behind the Scenes. But before we get into that documentary, Robbie, let's talk first about what is the Magninsky Act behind the scenes. But before we get into that documentary, Robbie,

let's talk first about what is the Magninsky Act.

What do you remember from it,

not only from the act itself,

but just about that time during the Obama presidency

that this happened?

So the Magnitsky Act, as far as I remember it,

was basically just, like, I just knew what the symbolism of it was, really. I had heard of it. I didn't really research it when I

worked on a very heavy agenda. Mainly charted sort of the explosion of anti-Russian rhetoric to

different events, like Edward Snowden being taken for asylum in Russia,

Syria, Ukraine, but I never really looked too deeply into the Magnitsky Act itself.

But after watching this documentary, it just became really clear to me that this bill that was

pushed through the U.S. Senate was in a lot of ways like one of the first major volleys in

sort of the Cold War 2.0 landscape and I guess I just didn't realize that until watching this film. And I had no idea.

All I knew about it was that somebody died in prison who was known as like a Russian patriot

whistleblower who was like speaking. Like this is how I understood it. So this is just an example of how

poorly I understood it. I thought it was like a whistleblower

...