Behind The Lines with Arthur Snell

With bewildering events unfolding all over the place, I wanted to give some coverage to the Republic of Georgia, where the pro-Western political movement is responding to a rigged election and the decision of the illegitimate Moscow-aligned 'Georgian Dream' to block negotiations to join the EU, in spite of the fervent wish of most Georgians to join the bloc. Huge demonstrations have broken out all over the country, in spite of intimidation and violence from police and security forces, some of whom may be Russian imports.I was privileged to be able to speak to Marika Mariashvili, a politician and academic who has been active at the heart of the democracy movement in the country. You can (and should!) follow Marika on BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/marikamikiashvili.bsky.social or Twitter https://x.com/Mikiashvili_M. This is genuinely a transitional moment in this country's story.

The extraordinary turn of events in Syria in recent days saw the city of Aleppo, once Syria's largest and a key part of the earlier story of Syria's revolution, fall to Syria's rebels, with the soldiers of the Assad regime in chaotic retreat. I spoke to Thomas van Linge, one of the few journalist who has been covering the story, about what has happened and the reasons why.You can support Thomas's work here https://ko-fi.com/thomasvlinge and he is active on Twitter and Bluesky.If you'd like to support this podcast the easiest way to do that is becoming a paid subscriber of my Substack: arthursnell.substack.com

Christopher Steele needs almost no introduction. But if you are interested in learning more about him you can buy his new book, Unredacted, here https://www.amazon.com/Unredacted-Russia-Trump-Fight-Democracy/dp/0063373432/ref=sr_1_1?crid=VZCQ114PBRZX&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.qv6Zf5VhmrCD7zu54PyFEawg2dYzrTOT0sYgpY4o3jI.poSf3-HXXCfxlQwgK_vy6Xubh-BXVRLmOA0iPDWXVhc&dib_tag=se&keywords=unredacted+christopher+steele&qid=1732891790&sprefix=unredac%2Caps%2C201&sr=8-1

Charlie Gammell is a historian and Iran expert. His latest article on Iran can be found here: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-winds-of-change-are-blowing-in-iran/

Dr Jonathan Terra is an American academic and analyst who has been based in Prague for 30+ years. We spoke about the impact of a Trump presidency on Eastern Europe and the wider geopolitical context.

In this episode I spoke to Jason Pack of the excellent Disorder podcast (https://x.com/DisorderShow) about conspiracy theories and how they are affecting the 2024 US presidential election. We also spoke about the state of the race which remains on a knife edge. You’ll be interested to look at Jason’s article in The New European on conspiracy theories here https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/a-lizard-persons-guide-to-us-election-conspiracy-theories/ and also an article Jason mentioned by Jonathan Winer on how Trump’s people might try a coup in this election https://washingtonspectator.org/endgame-the-risk-of-a-trump-coup-and-how-to-prevent-it/

I spoke to the Swedish journalist Axel Gordh Humlesjö about his work investigating Russian dirty money in Sweden, especially in relation to Swedbank, Sweden's largest bank, whose CEO has been imprisoned on money-laundering charges.https://x.com/axelhumlesjo?lang=en

In the chaotic world we inhabit, the smartphone has become a key element of warfare, even in societies where we might imagine that connectivity is limited by reduced technological sophistication. I was privileged to be able to discuss this rapidly evolving landscape with three brilliant scholars:Professor Mirjam de Bruijn (https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/mirjam-de-bruijn#tab-1)Dr Jethro Norman (https://www.diis.dk/en/experts/jethro-norman)Professor Matthew Ford (https://www.fhs.se/sc/profile-page.html?identity=400.78d9ed61181920a3a625796c