Is Russia Redeemable?

A lecture by Alexander Nevzorov.

Alexander Nevzorov blazed onto the Russian media scene during the heady days of Perestroika with his TV news program, 600 Seconds, exposing corruption and injustice in the late days of the Soviet Union. In the years that followed, however, Nevzorov made a string of controversial choices. In 1991, he supported the August coup attempt by hardliners in the Soviet government; in 1994, he supported the beginning of the first Chechen war; and in 2012, he supported Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency. In time, he renounced these choices, regretting his involvement with the “red-brown” proto-fascist movement of the early post-Soviet period, becoming an opponent of both the first and second Chechen wars, denouncing Russian imperialism, and excoriating Putin. In April 2021, Nevzorov predicted Russia would mount a full assault on Ukraine, and that the invasion would be a fiasco. After the invasion became a reality, he fiercely denounced the war and fled the country in March 2022 under threat of arrest. Russian authorities later sentenced him in absentia to eight years in prison and confiscated all his property. He eventually gained Ukrainian citizenship and has for the past 30 months been a fierce voice-in-exile denouncing the war, Putin, and the very idea of Russia. Today, more than 30 years after 600 Seconds went off the air, Nevzorov has found a vast audience, with a Telegram channel that boasts more than a million subscribers.