Why Russians Are Fleeing Their Country

Fresh Air

NPR

Society & Culture, Arts, Tv & Film, Books

4.3 • 36.1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2022

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

New Yorker staff writer Masha Gessen says there's been an exodus from Russia in the last week and a half: "It's a sudden and drastic descent into a sense of having no country." Gessen reported in late January and February from Ukraine, and then went to Moscow after the invasion. On the night Putin shut down the last remaining independent source of TV news, Gessen was at that TV studio. They're now in the Republic of Georgia.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for this podcast comes from the New Bower Family Foundation, supporting
0:04.7	WHY Wise Fresh Air and its commitment to sharing ideas and encouraging meaningful conversation.
0:11.4	My guest, Moshe Gesson, is a Russian American journalist who reported in late January
0:16.3	and February from Ukraine, then went to Moscow after the invasion.
0:21.0	On the night Putin shut down the last remaining independent source of TV news, Gesson was at
0:26.9	that studio.
0:27.8	Gesson's dispatches are being published in the New Yorker, where Gesson is a staff writer.
0:33.5	Gesson left Moscow on Thursday and is speaking to us from Tbilisi in the Republic of Georgia.
0:40.4	For 20 years, Gesson was a journalist in Moscow and had been the chief correspondent for Russia's leading news magazine
0:47.0	until it became impossible to report the real news.
0:50.2	After that, Gesson moved to a popular science magazine.
0:53.3	In 2013, when it became too dangerous to remain in Russia because of Putin's anti-Gay laws,
1:00.1	Gesson moved to New York with their partner and their adopted son and their two other children.
1:05.7	Gesson uses the pronouns they them.
1:08.6	They have written extensively about Putin, including in their book The Men Without A Face, the unlikely rise of Vladimir Putin.
1:15.4	Gesson warned about Trump's authoritarian style of leadership and its parallels to Putin in the book Surviving Autocracy.
1:23.8	We recorded our interview yesterday.
1:27.0	Masha Gesson, welcome to Fresh Air. I'm glad that you're safe.
1:30.6	You're into Tbilisi in the Republic of Georgia now.
1:33.7	Why is that where you are now?
1:35.2	I was in Moscow until last Thursday and all of that week, following the full-scale invasion that began at 5 in the morning,
1:50.2	the previous Thursday, people that I know Moscow started to feel panicked and really panicked, not just about the state of the country.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.