Foreign Office with Michael Weiss
Foreign Office is a weekly interview podcast hosted by Michael Weiss, from New Lines Magazine and Free Russia Foundation, dedicated to those ever-relevant subjects of Russian intelligence operations and active measures. Featured guests include prominent historians and scholars, journalists, diplomat… read more
All Episodes
#72. Mykola Bielieskov on Bakhmut and much more
March 23rd, 2023
Michael Weiss discusses the strategic importance of Bakhmut and the large Ukrainian military strategy with Mykola Bielieskov, Research Fellow at …
Foreign Office #71. Kinzinger on 1/6, Ukraine and the GOP
March 13th, 2023
The former Illinois Representative talks war — both abroad and at home.
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Foreign Office #70. Prigozhin and Wagner and Trolls—Oh My
February 21st, 2023
Renee DiResta of the Stanford Internet Observatory on the latest attempts to retcon Russia’s election interference
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Foreign Office #69. The View from Kyiv
February 15th, 2023
Yahoo contributor James Rushton and 'The Killer in the Kremlin' John Sweeney on covering the war from Ukraine and what to expect next.
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Foreign Office #68. Will Ukraine Get F-16s?
February 6th, 2023
U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jahara Matisek explains the debate around sending Western jets to Kyiv.
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Foreign Office #67. Why Russia's War Is In Even Worse Shape Than It Looks
January 30th, 2023
Eliot Cohen, Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, explains why he's optimistic Ukraine will win.
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Foreign Office #66. “Putin’s Folly”
January 23rd, 2023
Author Owen Mathews on his latest book Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin’s War Against Ukraine
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Foreign Office #65. On Ukraine's Military Adaptability
August 8th, 2022
Gen. Mick Ryan explains how Ukraine has handled Western weapons platforms, and why it's wisely gone back to a war of "corrosion" against Russian forces.
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Foreign Office #64. The Kyvian Reshuffle
August 1st, 2022
What’s behind Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s sacking of his SBU chief and Prosecutor General? Ukrainian journalist Viktor Kovalenko …
Foreign Office #63. The Fellas of NAFO
July 26th, 2022
How a dog avatar became a meme that chased a Russian ambassador off Twitter (for a while).
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Foreign Office #62. On Coups and Illegals
July 21st, 2022
Former CIA officer Marc Polymeropolous discusses the capture of a GRU illegal trying to infiltrate the ICC -- and whether or not former National …
Foreign Office #61. The Battle of Donbas
July 2nd, 2022
War reporter Danny Gold on his time at Ukraine’s eastern front
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Foreign Office #60. What is Wrong With Germany?
May 26th, 2022
Benjamin Tallis explains the Sholz government's wobbliness on Ukraine and why old habits die hard in Berlin.
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Foreign Office #59. How Mapmaking Explains Conflicts
May 16th, 2022
Nathan Ruser combined open source intelligence and cartography to offer a more precise and explanatory visual of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
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Foreign Office #58. What Ukraine Has -- And What It Still Needs
May 10th, 2022
James Rushton, an independent national security analyst, on the Western weapons systems sent to help Ukraine defend the Donbas.
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Foreign Office #57. The Russian Dissident in Jail
April 13th, 2022
Evgenia Kara-Murza talks about her husband Vladimir's latest arrest in Moscow.
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Foreign Office #56. How Military Analysts Got Russia's War So Wrong
April 4th, 2022
Phillips O'Brien, a professor a strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews, on why so many overestimated Russia's military capability.
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Foreign Office #55. On Ukraine's Non-Neutrality
March 16th, 2022
Olexander Scherba, Ukraine's former ambassador to Vienna, on why his country will never be like Austria.
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Foreign Office #54. Putin’s Purge
March 13th, 2022
Russian journalists Andrei Soldatov on how the FSB’s Fifth Service is taking the blame for failure in Ukraine.
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Foreign Office #53. On Defending Kyiv
March 7th, 2022
Pavlo Kalyuk, the community organizer for Podil, explains why he isn't leaving Ukraine's besieged capital.
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Foreign Office #52. Our Man in Kyiv
March 2nd, 2022
British journalist John Sweeney reports from Ukraine's besieged capital.
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Foreign Office #51. The view from Ukraine
February 23rd, 2022
Agnieszka Legucka recently returned from Eastern Ukraine, offers her perspective of what happens next.
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Foreign Office #50. Information war as a prelude to real war
February 23rd, 2022
Peter Pomerantsev and Vladislav Davidson discuss the messaging about an intending Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Foreign Office #49. Russia Prepares the Battlespace in Ukraine
February 7th, 2022
Hybrid War Expert Liubov Tsybulska on how Russia’s “imminent” invasion is already underway.
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Foreign Office #48. A Likely Attack
January 24th, 2022
Robert Lee, a Russian military analyst, says Putin's buildup at Ukraine's borders means only one thing: an invasion is coming.
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Foreign Office #47. The Crisis in Kazakhstan
January 10th, 2022
Human rights lawyer Steve Swerdlow and scholar Diana Kudaibergenova on the recent turmoil in the Central Asian republic.
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Foreign Office #46. Putin’s Expendables
December 30th, 2021
Journalists Holger Roonemaa and Mattias Carlsson discuss their joint investigation with @foreignoffpod into the notorious Russian mercenary corps.
…
Foreign Office #45. The Case Against Assange
December 20th, 2021
National security attorney Mark Zaid explains the US government’s indictments of the Wikileaks founder, history of the Espionage Act, and why this case is unique.
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Foreign Office #44. The State of Iraq
October 31st, 2021
Newlines Institute senior analyst Rasha Al Qeedi dissects the results of the last election and how the country has changed since America's invasion.
Foreign Office #43. Once Bitten, Twice Bold
October 28th, 2021
Ambassador Daniels Fried on why the US keeps making the same mistakes with Russia.
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Foreign Office #42. How the Kremlin Manipulates the Anti-Money Laundering System
October 18th, 2021
Attorney Jonathan Reich explains how financial safeguards against criminality are being used to target Russian dissidents and exiles from Putin's regime.
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Foreign Office #41. Why the American Right Loves Orban
October 1st, 2021
Hungarian writer Peter Kreko explains how a Central European country of ten million became the lodestar for a new breed of North American conservative.
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Foreign Office #40. Our Own Worst Enemy
August 31st, 2021
Atlantic contributor and USA Today columnist Tom Nichols discusses America's political and cultural dysfunction, and why there may not be a cure.
…
Foreign Office #39. The Geopolitics of the New Afghanistan
August 30th, 2021
A scholar and expert on Afghanistan Kamran Bokhari explains how various countries will respond to the Taliban takeover, and what to do about ISIS-K.
Foreign Office #38. ISIS-K and the Taliban: It's Complicated
August 28th, 2021
Former US Army intelligence officer Michael Pregent on the terrorist threat from Afghanistan in the wake of two horrific suicide bombings.
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Foreign Office #37. Crisis and Credibility
August 20th, 2021
Mike Nelson, a U.S. war veteran and visiting fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University, discusses the pullout from …
Foreign Office #36. America's Abandoned Allies
August 18th, 2021
Journalist and author Wesley Morgan explains how Afghans integral to the U.S. war effort have been left to a grim fate in a Taliban-run country.
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Foreign Office #35. Afghanistan, Before and After the Americans
August 17th, 2021
Afghanistan scholar and professor at the US Naval Postgraduate School Thomas Johnson explains how America bungled its longest war.
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Foreign Office #34. Why Vladimir Milov Is Optimistic
August 13th, 2021
Russia's former deputy energy minister discusses the political situation in Russia, and why Putin isn't as strong as he looks.
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Foreign Office #33. Tales from Odessa
August 11th, 2021
Author Vladislav Davidzon on a decade of writing about (and for) Ukraine.
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Foreign Office #32. The Biden-Russia Conundrum
August 4th, 2021
Veteran Russia expert James Sherr discusses the recent policy pivot on Nord Stream 2, and what the West doesn't understand when dealing with Moscow.
Foreign Office #31. Sorge's Way
July 21st, 2021
Historian and biographer Owen Mathews on how Soviet master spy Richard Sorge infiltrated the Third Reich.
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Foreign Office #30. The Silent Weapon
June 21st, 2021
Former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos on being a victim of directed energy attacks, U.S. Russian relations, and his new book.
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Foreign Office #29. The View from Vilnius
May 26th, 2021
Former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicious discusses Belarus's hijacking of a commercial plane, and what the West needs to do about Minsk (and Moscow).
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Foreign Office #28. A KGB Kidnapping
May 24th, 2021
Andrei Sannikov, a former Belarusian presidential candidate, explains Alexander Lukashenko's crazy plot to arrest a journalist by hijacking a RyanAir plane.
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Foreign Office #27. Microwaves and Bounties
May 19th, 2021
National security reporter Tom Rogan on why the CIA isn't giving up on the GRU 'bounties' claim, and on alleged directed energy attacks against Americans.
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Foreign Office #26. Explosions and Expulsions
May 5th, 2021
Czech analyst Jakub Janda on how Russian state terrorism on NATO soil has upended Prague's relationship with Moscow.
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Foreign Office #25. A 21st Century SMERSH
May 4th, 2021
Bellingcat's Christo Grozev on what the latest disclosures out of Bulgaria and Czechia tell us about GRU Unit 29155.
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Foreign Office #24. The Professor and “Ivan”
April 26th, 2021
Nerma Jelacic, director of External Relations and Communications at Commission for International Justice and Accountability, explains how her NGO unmasked a Russian-back disinformation network on Syria — by pretending …
Foreign Office #23. Of “Kostya” and Collusion
April 19th, 2021
RFE/RL’s Mike Eckel explains how the latest US sanctions on Russia advance what Mueller alleged about the Trump campaign’s ties to Moscow.
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Foreign Office #22. Will Russia Invade Ukraine (Again)?
April 12th, 2021
USIP Russia Director Don Jensen weighs the possible reason for Russia’s military buildup.
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Foreign Office #21. Strategic Miscommunication
March 29th, 2021
Analyst Monika Richter explains how Chinese government threats got an EU report on COVID-19 disinformation censored.
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Foreign Office #20. Disinformation and Its Discontents
March 22nd, 2021
Johns Hopkins scholar and “Active Measures” author Thomas Rid on the DNI report on Russian meddling and how 2020 is different from 2016.
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Foreign Office #19. When a Hack is not an Attack
March 15th, 2021
Wired journalist Andy Greenberg on the SolarWinds hack and why cyberespionage is not cyber warfare.
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Foreign Office #18. The Pipeline from Hell
March 8th, 2021
Benjamin Schmitt, an energy security expert, argues Nord Stream 2 can and should be cancelled.
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Foreign Office #17. Canceling Navalny
February 25th, 2021
Russian journalist Yevgenia Albats — on Amnesty International’s decision to revoke Navalny’s prisoner of conscious status.
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Foreign Office #16. Mr. Jones and Me
February 23rd, 2021
Andrea Chalupa, screenwriter of "Mr. Jones," on what inspired her to memorialize the journalist who uncovered Ukraine's terror-famine.
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Foreign Office #15. What the Borrell Was He Thinking?
February 15th, 2021
Senior Fellow at the European Values Center for Security Policy Nathalie Vogel on why the EU let the Kremlin humiliate it — again.
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Foreign Office #14. Beirut Blues
February 8th, 2021
The deputy editor of Newlines magazine Faysal Itani on the murder of Lebanese activist Lokman Slim and what America can and cannot do in the Middle East.
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Foreign Office #13. The KGB's "Confidential Contacts"
February 4th, 2021
Former CIA Officer John Sipher discusses the grey area between Russian informant and Russian agent.
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Foreign Office #12. The People v. Julian Assange
January 14th, 2021
Journalist Marcy Wheeler explains the U.S. government's charges against the Wikileaks founder, and why Britain refused to extradite him to America to face them.
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Foreign Office #11. How to Catch a Russian Assassin
December 19th, 2020
Christo Grozev, the Bellingcat journalist who unmasked Alexey Navalny’s hit squad, explains how he did it, and what it says about Putin’s security state.
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#10. America in a Post-Trump World
December 17th, 2020
Foreign policy analyst Damir Marusic on why a Biden presidency won't necessarily change much.
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#9. Resets, Be Gone!
December 8th, 2020
Former Biden adviser and Russia expert Michael Carpenter discusses his coauthored articles with President-Elect Joe Biden and what to expect from the new administration.
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#8. Unfrozen Conflict
December 1st, 2020
Award-winning journalist Simon Ostrovsky reports from Nagorno-Karabakh
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#7. The View from Europe
November 11th, 2020
As Joe Biden crept to victory, Estonia's former President Toomas Henrik Ilves explained how much of Europe saw this election -- and what it expects and (doesn't expect) from America going forward
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#6. Thumping Out Sandworm
October 26th, 2020
FireEye's John Hultquist explains the U.S. government's newly unsealed indictment about the GRU's devastating hacking operations.
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#5. CIA v KGB: How American and Russian political warfare differs -- and how it doesn't
October 19th, 2020
Tim Weiner, the acclaimed historian of the CIA, discusses his new book on American-Russian political warfare, from the Cold War till now.
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#4. Second Time As Farce: How a Russian-Backed Operation in Ukraine to Sway the 2020 U.S. Election Came Undone
October 12th, 2020
Time magazine's Simon Shuster discusses the ongoing Kremlin disinformation campaign involving individuals sanctioned by the U.S. Government
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#3. Double Trouble: Who and What Poisoned Vladimir Kara-Murza?
October 1st, 2020
In this episode, Vladimir Kara-Murza, vice president of Free Russia Foundation, recounts his own poisoning (twice) while traveling in Russia and what …
#2. Russia's history of poisonings
September 28th, 2020
Russian journalists Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan discuss Russia's history of poisonings in light of the Navalny case and why the use of a …
#1. How Austria became Europe’s spy capital
September 21st, 2020
In our pilot episode, Michael interviews Anton Shekhovtsov, an expert on the European far-right and the Russian government's ties to it. They discuss their jointly written essay for The Daily Beast, drawn from a …
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