Moscow, from village to vanquisher.

The Russian capital started as a fort on a hill

and survived invasion, revolution,

civil war, and Soviet collapse

to transform into a formidable world power.

But with the limits of that power

being tested on the front lines of Ukraine,

can Russian president of Vladimir Putin's imperial ambition

to be reined in?

And in Moscow Moscow is history doomed

to repeat itself. Coming up on Compass Points.

Hello and welcome to Compass Points. For Americans today, Russia and its capital of Moscow,

is presented as a place of peril. The State Department has advised Americans not to travel there after high-profile arrests, including basketball star Brittany Greiner and Wall Street Journal

reporter Evan Grishovich.

But Moscow has not always been this hostile, and it is one of the world's great cities.

First documented in 1147, transformed repeatedly by fire, war, revolution, and even architecture

that always reflected the politics of the day. It is a city with a Trinity,

orthodoxy, autocracy, and nationality. That phrase comes from Princeton professor Simon Morrison's

new book, A Kingdom and a Village, a thousand-year history of Moscow that teaches us how Moscow's

complex past helps us understand the present. And Simon joins me here.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for being here.

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