Jacobin Radio: The Cost of Speaking Out Against Russia’s War w/ Simon Pirani

Jacobin Radio

Jacobin

Politics, History, News

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2026

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Suzi speaks with Simon Pirani about his book Voices Against Putin’s War: Protesters’ Defiant Speeches in Russian Courts and the film Try Me For Treason. Russian exile activist Aleksandra Zapolskaia also joins the conversation to discuss Azat Miftakhov’s case, one of thousands. Currently, there are more political prisoners in Russia than at any time since the post-Stalin thaw of the 1950s, and the state is killing them; at least seven political prisoners died in Russian custody in the first four months of 2026.

We will also hear actors from the film read courtroom speeches from Igor Paskar and Andrei Trofimov. Paskar, who was tortured after protesting at an FSB office, asked the court what future generations will be told about these times. Trofimov received three additional years of imprisonment for his initial courtroom statements; his second speech concludes with the line that gave the film its title: “Try me for treason. I betrayed your deranged state.”

Aleksandra Zapolskaya (Sasha) shares the story of Azat Miftakhov, the mathematician and anarchist who was tortured at an Arctic penal colony just down the road from where Navalny was killed. After his torturers were publicly identified, prison officials called Azat to their office and promised to treat him “respectfully” if he would stop talking to the media. “Being silent doesn’t help,” Sasha says. “Being loud helps.”

The discussion covers prisoner solidarity, the duration of the war, and the implications of Russia’s current trajectory. Sasha offers a warning to Western listeners regarding the speed of political shifts: “It changes very slowly. And then it happens very fast.”

Watch the film: youtube.com/watch?v=7FHacVH8tK8

Jacobin article: https://jacobin.com/2026/05/film-russia-ukraine-antiwar-prisoners

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Jacobin Radio. I'm Susie Wiseman. On today's program, Simon Perani and
0:14.1	Alexandra Zabroskaya join us in conversation about Putin's systematic repression of anti-war
0:20.6	critics sentenced to years in prison on absurd charges, discrediting the military, justifying terrorism.
0:27.6	We've covered this a lot on the show, but the situation is getting worse as the war grinds on, not just in the scale of repression, but in the state's increasing use of extremist and terrorist charges
0:39.3	to arbitrarily lengthen prison sentences, hearkening back to something Stalin did.
0:45.3	We speak with Simon and Sasha about Putin's political prisoners and the film,
0:50.3	based on the book, Voices Against Putin's War,
0:53.3	Protesters' defiant speeches in Russiants, compiled and edited by Simon, who's a fellow Russian specialist.
1:00.3	He's been traveling to Russian Ukraine since Soviet times.
1:03.6	You can watch the film Try Me for Treason.
1:05.8	It's a 50-minute documentary made by actors in Britain who volunteered their time to bring into English the final words spoken in Russian courtrooms by people sentenced to years in prison for opposing Putin's war.
1:19.0	It's free. Go to try me for treason.org for more information and links. We're also joined by Alexandra Sapolskaya or Sasha, a sociologist and Russian anti-war activist, now in exile, in Paris.
1:31.3	Sasha is coordinator and editor of Postley, the Russian Language Left Journal, and a member of Solidarity Free Assad, the campaign for imprisoned mathematician, Asat Miftakov.
1:41.3	We're going to hear about the people behind the speeches, who they are,
1:45.1	what drove them to speak, and what they've suffered since. We'll talk about political
1:49.4	repression in Russia. There are more political prisoners now than at any point since the post-Stalin
1:55.3	thaw of the 1950s. And we'll hear about Assad, who's now being tortured in an Arctic penal colony just down the road from where Alexei Navalny was killed.
2:05.7	At the end of the hour, I'll give the links again to watch the film. Stay with us.
2:21.3	And welcome back to the show.
2:22.5	I'm Susie Wiseman.
2:30.7	We're very fortunate to have Simon Perani and Sasha Zafolzkaa with us to discuss the nature and scope of political repression in Russia.
2:35.7	And the individual cases highlighted in the book and in the film. And as I mentioned in the introduction, the Russian state actively uses extremist and terrorist articles for
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 10 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jacobin, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Jacobin and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.