Videos
The Noble Failure Of Russia’s Liberal reformers
Russia’s rapid economic decline in the 1990s was the result of too little, rather than too much, ‘shock therapy’.
August 17, 2026
Recorded at April 1, 2020.
Stephen A. Kotkin is a professor of history at Princeton and a fellow at the Hoover Institution. Kotkin is one of the nation’s most compelling observers of foreign affairs, past and present, and is now working on the third and final volume of his definitive biography of Josef Stalin. From that perspective, Peter Robinson and Kotkin discuss Trump’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, Kotkin’s thoughts on the Chinese leadership class and the advantages they may seek to exploit, and which country—China or the United States—will come to represent the more successful or compelling model to other nations.
To view the transcript of this conversation, click here.

Stephen Kotkin
Videos
Russia’s rapid economic decline in the 1990s was the result of too little, rather than too much, ‘shock therapy’.
August 17, 2026
Videos
How honoring contracts helped build America’s financial reputation.
August 18, 2026
Articles
He believed self-governance would falter without universities that enshrined free inquiry.
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