Robert Amsterdam

CFR.org is hosting a podcast discussion with Andrew Kuchins, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Russia and Eurasia Program, on the recent spate of apparent contract killings in Russia.

Among other comments, Kuchins remarks that 1) to be an investigative journalist in Russia is an extremely dangerous occupation, and 2) if a murder of a journalist occurs, it is highly unlikely that the crime will be solved. He also says that the West can't really do much to improve the situation for journalists, because it no longer has the leverage it had in the 1990s. Kuchins: "As this rash of contract killings demonstrates, I think it really demonstrates more the weakness of Mr. Putin's system, rather than the strength and the control that the Kremlin has."