Shownotes
The predictions began soon after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine: the collapse of the Russian economy was imminent. Four years later, it still hasn’t happened. And yet, the cracks are appearing: Ukrainian drones that are now capable of striking critical targets in Moscow; economic data that even the Kremlin can’t spin as positive. But what do these changes actually feel like for Russian citizens? This week, Wojciech calls people with friends and family in Moscow to find out.
We’re also talking about why your bar of Milka is 10 grams lighter than it was. Oh, and we’re calling up the winner of the Microsoft Excel World Championships. No biggie.
Check out Diarmuid Early’s YouTube videos here, including this one, which starts with an introduction to competitive spreadsheeting.
This week’s Inspiration Station recommendations are Aleksandar Vučić’s interview with The Rest Is Politics: Leading, and Francesco Pacifico’s essay in The Dial: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine?
Resources for this episode:
This podcast was brought to you in cooperation with Euranet Plus, the leading radio network for EU news. But it’s contributions from listeners that truly make it all possible — we could not continue to make the show without you! If you like what we do, you can chip in to help us cover our production costs at patreon.com/europeanspodcast (in many different currencies), or you can gift a donation to a superfan. You can also donate via our website if you prefer. And finally: we'd also love it if you could tell two friends about this podcast. We think two feels like a reasonable number.
Produced by Katy Lee
Mixing and mastering by Wojciech Oleksiak
Music by Jim Barne and Mariska Martina
The Europeans is proudly produced using Europe’s own Hindenburg.
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