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rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath.

By understanding these compromises, you understand what fuels the Putin system.

And the fact of how perhaps, kind of nefariously and unfortunately,

but nonetheless inevitably, the Putin system gets this buy-in from so many of its most capable and ambitious citizens

is what gives it its longevity, really, right?

It finds a way to incorporate and implicate, in some cases,

people who have the most to offer and who in any system would find a way to thrive.

And the Putin system gives them that opportunity in very constricted ways,

oftentimes, in ways that require a lot of those people, but gets them into the system,

makes them oftentimes against their own initial desires part of that system.

I'm Jacob Schultz, and this is the LawFair podcast, February 8, 2020.

Russia continues to sporadically poke its head into American media headlines,

whether it be for its role in Syria or for anxieties about fresh election interference in 2020.

But these news stories seldom provide a window into life in Putin's Russia.

I sat down with Joshua Yafa, the Moscow correspondent for the New Yorker about his new book,

Between Two Fires, Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin's Russia.

The book gives a series of portraits of prominent figures within Russia

...