Pushkin.

It's hard to read the news these days without asking yourself, how did we get here?

Fiasco is a history podcast for the co-creators of Slow Burn.

In our first season, Bush v. Gore, we examine an unmistakable turning point in American politics, the 2000 election, which resulted in a high-stakes stalemate, ended with one of the most controversial rulings in Supreme Court history.

So if you're trying to make sense at the present moment, check out Fiasco, Bush v. Gore. Listen on theHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

From Pushkin Industries, this is deep background, the show where we explore the stories behind

the stories in the news. I'm Noah Feldman. On January 17, 2021, Russian politician and opposition leader, Alexander Navalny, better known as Alexei, was arrested on his re-entry to Russia.

This was his first visit back to Russia after being poisoned months before, an attempted murder which journalists have linked to President Vladimir Putin's intelligence services.

A Russian judge ordered Navalny to spend more than two years in a Russian prison labor colony,

and his arrests and imprisonment have set off some of the widest protests Russia has seen in years,

not to mention a movement for sanctions in the West.

Now, Navalny is a complex figure.

He is portrayed in the West as a staunch advocate of democracy and press freedoms,

and in many senses he is.

Yet it's also true that in recent months there's been renewed scrutiny

of some of his nationalist and even xenophobic

public comments from about a decade ago. Amnesty International decided on the basis of those comments

to remove his designation as prisoner of conscience because they say you have to not only stand

out for good ideas but also not express hate to qualify.

This is a complex and tricky issue, as is the question of what Navalny's return and

the protests mean in Russia.

To better understand it, and to hear more about how the news is covered by the free Russian

...