
In Moscow's Shadows 250: Moscow's Comms Playbook (And Why It's So Bad)
From In Moscow's Shadows by Mark Galeotti
May 31, 2026 · 41 min · Episode 250
About this episode
The episode discusses how the Kremlin's crisis management exacerbates political issues following a drone incident in Romania.
A Russian drone hits a Romanian apartment block, two civilians are injured, and suddenly a stray weapon becomes a case study in how Putin’s Kremlin handles bad news. Why does the Kremlin’s crisis management default to a belligerent, self-sabotaging sequence that turns a manageable incident into a wider political problem? It comes down to the priorities of an insecure, personalistic authoritarian system that equates any admission of failure with weakness, that regards information as a battlef...
People in this episode
Host: Mark Galeotti
Topics covered
- crisis management
- authoritarianism
- political communication
- Russian politics
- media strategy
Keywords
- Kremlin
- drone
- crisis management
- Putin
- political problem
- authoritarian system
- information warfare
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Moscow, Romania
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