Julia Ioffe on Putin's Road to War

The FRONTLINE Dispatch

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4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2022

⏱️ 27 minutes

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Summary

Journalist Julia Ioffe recently sat down with producer Mike Wiser for the March 2022 FRONTLINE documentary “Putin’s Road to War.” In this episode of The FRONTLINE Dispatch, we hear an excerpt of that interview, in which Ioffe discusses Russian President Vladimir Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine and how he, and the world, reached this tipping point.

“What he has opened up with this invasion is unthinkable,” Ioffe tells FRONTLINE. “And because he is losing, and because the sanctions and the Ukrainians are humiliating him, because he is backed into a corner, he is the most dangerous he has ever been, because it is now existential for him.”

Julia Ioffe is an American journalist who was born in Russia. She is a writer for and a founding partner of the media company Puck. She previously reported on politics and world affairs for the Atlantic and other publications. This interview, conducted on March 3, 2022, has been edited for clarity and length.

“Putin's Road to War” premieres Tuesday, March 15 on PBS and will be available to stream on FRONTLINE’s website, the PBS Video app and FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel.

Want to be notified every time a new FRONTLINE podcast episode drops? Sign up for The FRONTLINE Dispatch newsletter.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Russian shells pummeling a residential neighborhood in Kharkiv.
0:09.0	Explosions in air raid sirens across the country.
0:11.0	A high-proliptic scene on the outskirts of the capital city of Kiev, where Ukraine
0:16.0	Russian tanks and troops are continuing their assault on Ukraine.
0:20.3	More than 2 million civilians have fled, and what the UN has described as the fastest
0:25.2	growing refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War.
0:29.6	Many more remain trapped inside the country.
0:32.2	The last 24 hours with mass casualties, the Russians blocking exit routes and stopping civilians
0:38.3	from fleeing.
0:39.3	He was a masseter to the United Nations, suggests the number could increase to more than
0:43.6	5 million before it's over.
0:46.0	I'm Rainier and Sinrov, and this is the frontline dispatch.
0:49.8	Frontlines new documentary, Putin's road to war, investigates the man who brought the
0:54.6	world to this dangerous moment, Russian president Vladimir Putin.
0:59.0	I think he's more dangerous than he's ever been, at any point in the last 22 years.
1:03.8	He will grind the country down to a fine, fine ash.
1:08.2	And it doesn't matter how many Russian soldiers die in the process, how many Ukrainian soldiers
1:12.8	and civilians die in the process.
1:15.4	That's Julia Yafi, an American journalist born in Russia, who is a founding partner at
1:20.8	the media company Puck.
1:22.9	Yafi has been covering Russia for more than 15 years, and on this episode of the frontline
1:27.5	dispatch.
	...

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