Fault Lines Special Coverage: Putin's State of the Nation Address, Policies Foreign & Domestic

On this episode of Fault Lines, hosts Jamarl Thomas and Shane Stranahan covered Putin's State of the Nation address, talking about Russia's policies foreign and domestic, looking at Ukraine, Belarus, and Putin's recommendations on the economy, healthcare, infrastructure, and other domestic topics.

Guests:

Michael Maloof – former senior security policy analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense | Russia's Foreign Policy: Brewing War in Ukraine, Attempted Assassination and Coup in Belarus

Lee Stranahan – host of "The Backstory" on Sputnik | Russia's Foreign Policy: Brewing War in Ukraine, Attempted Assassination and Coup in Belarus

Mark Sleboda – International Relations and Security Analyst | The Domestic Side of Putin's Address

After playing Putin's State of the Nation address in full in our first hour, we were joined in our second hour by Michael Maloof and Lee Stranahan to discuss Putin's statements on foreign policy, looking at the prospect of war in Ukraine and the origins and acceleration of that conflict, as well as the attempted assassination and coup plot against Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus.

In our last hour we were joined by Mark Sleboda to talk about Putin's statements on healthcare, the economy, infrastructure, education, and the other domestic topics that the Russian president focused on for the majority of his speech. We went over Russia's COVID response and the state of the country's economy, and looked at how this address will affect the upcoming elections later this year for seats in the State Duma, Russia's federal legislative body.

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