This podcast is sponsored by Seller Plan from Berry Brothers and Rudd, collecting fine wines for future drinking.

Hello and welcome to The Spectator podcast. I'm Lara Prendergast and in this week's episode, I'll be talking to two Russia experts on the country's hidden fragility. I'll be asking, is Putin's game plan just to survive on luck?

In traditional critique of Russia, one reads that Russia is an evil, somehow a threat to us and our way of life.

At the same time, it's a basket case, which is stagnating.

I often feel when reading such things, well, make up your mind,

which is it? Are they a dangerous threat with the power to overthrow us or their basket case?

We'll also be getting to the bottom of Trump's tariffs. Are they good or bad?

I think the esteemed Matt Ridley has an error in his analysis of the history. In fact,

very, very few reputable economists think that

Smoole Hulli had very much to do with the Great Depression, much less caused World War II.

And in fact, Washington, Hamilton, Henry Clay, Abraham Lincoln, every Republican president,

up to Dwight Eisenhower, protected American manufacturing.

And last, is kindness the answer to the world's current problems?

I talked to Cosmo Landiseman and kindness expert Gabriella Van Ray.

Take that one moment, one person, one kindness to be the difference in that moment.

And I believe that that creates a ripple effect.

That creates safer communities.

And the explanation to that, Cosmo, is when you do that,

you have no idea what that leaves in that man or that woman that you've affected.

The World Cup is due to start in a week, and as the streets of Moscow are cleaned up in preparation,

things seem to be going pretty well for Putin's Russia.

Russia has been asked to fill the void left by Trump in the Iran nuclear deal.

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