I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Thursday, March 31st.

With me now is Nina Khrushcheva, International Affairs Professor at the New School,

and she happens to be the great

granddaughter of the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, who was in office in the 1950s and 60s,

remembered for denouncing the crimes of Joseph Stalin and introducing some liberal reforms,

but also for the Cuban Missile Crisis. We'll talk about Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine in the context of Russian history

and a little bit about Putin in the context of Donald Trump history,

even with Putin committing war crimes in progress.

Trump was back at it this week, soliciting Putin's help regarding rumors of the Biden family and this and that.

Professor Krushcheva, thank you for coming on at this intense time.

Welcome back to WNYC.

Thank you for inviting me.

Can I ask about Putin in the long sweep of history that includes your great grandfather?

Nikita Khrushchev was known for his campaign

of de-Stalinization of Russia, as I don't have to tell you, of course. People are saying Putin is

doing re-Stalinization. Can you start historically with Stalin then? Remind people of the things he did

that your great-grandfather denounced?

Well, thank you. Putin, I think, goes much further in history than just starting a 20th century

because he looks at himself as Putin the Great, and that goes back centuries and centuries

and centuries. So Stalin is just one of his predecessors that he admires.

He himself never said that he admired Stalin,

but the whole system is set up that Putin is the successor of Stalin

...