About this episode

Richard Lyntton shares his experiences from the Cold War to the Gulf War, including encounters with war criminals in Bosnia.

Richard Lyntton’s life has taken him from Cold War Moscow to the deserts of the Gulf War and the shattered streets of Sarajevo. In this powerful episode, he recalls studying in the Soviet Union during the hopeful Gorbachev years, travelling across Russia by train, and later serving as a tank commander during the First Gulf War. At the heart of this conversation is Bosnia, where Richard witnessed the siege of Sarajevo, came face to face with Bosnian Serb war criminal Radovan Karadžić, and narrowly escaped trouble after secretly filming General Ratko Mladić. Richard also describes documenting the aftermath of ethnic cleansing, filming evidence of war crimes, and later testifying at The Hague. He shares his extraordinary journey from North London schoolboy and Russian-language student to British Army officer, UN observer, filmmaker, actor and thriller writer. His new book, Crown Deception, is out now. It is a story of danger, moral complexity and survival — but also of humanity, resilience and the strange absurdities of war. Check out Richard's books here https://amzn.to/4vh5fgx Curated episode extras https://coldwarconversations.com/episode464/ Help me preserve Cold War history…

People in this episode

Host: Ian Sanders

Guest: Richard Lyntton

Topics covered

• war crimes
• Bosnia
• Cold War
• Gulf War
• ethnic cleansing
• filmmaking
• testimony

Keywords

• Srebrenica
• war criminals
• Sarajevo
• ethnic cleansing
• Crown Deception
• Gulf War
• testifying at The Hague
• filmmaking
• Cold War history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Hague

Books & works: Crown Deception

Places: Bosnia, Cold War Moscow, Sarajevo, North London, Gulf War

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