What exactly is happening in Russia right now?
Armed rebellion. Aborted coup attempt. Prelude to a civil war. However you label the events in Russia this weekend, they exposed deep divisions within the military forces Vladimir Putin has relied on to fight his war in Ukraine.
Mercenary Wagner troops turned around on Saturday before making good on threats to march all the way to Moscow to unseat members of Russia’s military leadership.
After he waged an all-out social media assault on Russia’s generals — and Putin’s justification for invading Ukraine — Wagner’s catering tycoon-turned-paramilitary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin accepted a deal to head to Belarus. It was a chaotic, confusing 36 hours in Russia.
Carl Larson is a U.S. Army veteran who fought last year in Ukraine with the International Legion of the Defense of Ukraine. He testified about the Wagner mercenary group to the European Parliament earlier this year.
He’s also co-founder and chair of the Seattle Chapter of Ukraine Defense Support, which sends equipment and supplies to Ukraine’s military.
He sat down with "Soundside" host Libby Denkmann to discuss the situation.
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Libby Denkmann
Host, Soundside
Libby Denkmann joined KUOW in December 2021 as the host of the midday show Soundside. She’s a native Pacific Northwesterner who grew up in Redmond, graduated from the University of Washington and covered local news as a producer and reporter with KIRO Radio.
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Natalie Akane Newcomb
Announcer / Producer
Natalie is a recent graduate from Washington State University. She started writing radio features at her high school’s radio station 889 TheBridge and soon thereafter participated in RadioActive's summer 2016 workshop.
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Sarah Leibovitz
Supervising Producer, Soundside
Sarah joined KUOW in 2019 as senior producer on The Record. She is now Supervising KUOW’s new noon time show, Soundside. Prior to working at KUOW, Sarah was lead producer at the Seattle podcast production company Larj Media, and a teaching artist with Path with Art.
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