Putin May Not Like How He's Changed Europe
About this episode
Klein interviews Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev about how Russia's invasion of Ukraine shattered Europe's post-Cold War order. Krastev argues the war ended Europeans' faith that economic interdependence tames authoritarians, forced a reckoning with neutrality and defense spending, and exposed how much European identity rested on forgetting history rather than resolving it. They discuss the tension between liberalism and sovereignty, the politics of nationalism and identity, demographic anxieties, Western double standards toward refugees and war, whether Europe can achieve strategic autonomy, and what the invasion reveals about America's reliability as an ally and China's role in the emerging world order.