The Power Vertical Podcast by Brian Whitmore

The Power Vertical Podcast by Brian Whitmore

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The Power Vertical Podcast by Brian Whitmore covers emerging and developing trends in Russian politics, shining a spotlight on the high-stakes power struggles, machinations, and clashing interests that shape Kremlin policy today. Brian Whitmore is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council Eurasia Center and Russia and Eurasia Specialist and Assistant Professor of Practice at the Charles T. McDowell Center for Global Studies at The University of Texas at Arlington.

Episode List

WAR BY OTHER MEANS - THE KREMLIN'S NEGOTIATING PLAYBOOK

Feb 20th, 2026 12:00 AM

On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with two veteran diplomats, former U.S. State Department official Donald Jensen, who is currently an an adjunct professor in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University and an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies; and Osmolovska, a 15-year veteran of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry who now serves as the head of GLOBSEC's Kyiv office. They are the co-authors of an important, exhaustively researched, and very timely report, "Adversary at the Table: Negotiating with Putin's Russia," which was released this week by the Atlantic Council.

RUSSIA AND THE EMERGING WORLD ORDER

Feb 13th, 2026 12:00 AM

On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Mikhail Zygar, author of the bestselling books All The Kremlin's Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin, War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine, and the recently published The Dark Side of the Earth: Russia's Short-lived Victory over Totalitarianism.

THE DARK ART OF GEOPOLITICAL EXTORTION

Feb 6th, 2026 12:00 AM

On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Craig Kennedy, an associate at Harvard University's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, author of the must-read Substack newsletter Navigating Russia, where he published the recent reports "The Mystery of the Bella 1: Why Did Moscow Mount a ‘Spetsoperatsiia' to Save a Stateless Shadow Tanker?" and "Restraining Russian Oil."

FEAR AND LOATHING IN DAVOS

Jan 22nd, 2026 12:00 AM

And as the Kremlin seeks to exploit the transatlantic rift, Ukraine is seeking a way to survive it. We're in uncharted waters folks. On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Michael Carpenter, a senior fellow for transatlantic affairs at the International Institute for Strategic Studies who served in the administration of former U.S President Joe Biden as the NSC's Senior Director for Europe as well as the US Ambassador to the OSCE; and Eric Ciaramella, a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who served as a deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the U.S. National Intelligence Council.

RUSSIA’S WAR ON UKRAINIAN CHILDREN

Jan 16th, 2026 12:00 AM

On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Katya Pavlevych, founder of the organization Forget Us Not, a civil society coalition advocating for the return of Ukraine's abducted children, and an advisor on children' s issues at Razom for Ukraine; and Andreas Umland, an analyst at the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs and an Associate Professor of Political Science at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Andreas also is the author of the 2024 report "Russia’s Forcible Transfers of Unaccompanied Ukrainian Children: Responses from Ukraine, the EU and Beyond" and has testified in the European Parliament on the issue.

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