Episode 9: Who Asked You?
Episode Length: 29:27
Focus
Protests for democracy in St. Petersburg, Russia, industrial pollution in Murmansk, Russia, and cultural differences between the US and Russia
Locations
St. Petersburg and Murmansk, Russia
Keywords
protests, privatization, mining, Soviet era, authoritarianism
Episode Outline
These outlines are intended to help you locate ideas and topics more easily, but these are narrative episodes with many interlocking themes and ideas, so you may want to share segments that cross multiple points in the outline.
MINUTES: 00:00 - 08:27
Protests ahead of Putin’s fourth inauguration in St. Petersburg in 2018:
Dangerous to protest in Russia
08:28 - 11:56
Protests in St. Petersburg has ties to the Arctic and the privatization of state-own resources in the 1990s:
Huge deposits of metals, minerals, oil, and gas sold to oligarchs with connections to Putin
BREAK
12:01 - 15:52
Murmansk, the world’s largest city north of the Arctic Circle, is a military and industrial hub:
Region is rich in minerals, the mining and processing of which are polluting the air and soil
15:53 - 17:29
Many international organizations have a presence in Russia:
People have to be careful about how and when they criticize the government
Foreign Agent Law
17:30 - 22:49
What life was like under the Soviets compared to now.
22:50 - 26:44
Cultural differences between Americans and Soviets:
Soviet Youth Pioneers were like a scouting organization that focused on ideology and nationalism
26:45 - 29:27
People who work as Foreign Agents are monitored by the government.