The descent into madness under Putin

普京统治下的疯狂深渊

The Story

2026-04-03

32 分钟
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When The Times foreign correspondent Marc Bennetts moved to Russia in 1997, there was hope for a new future for the country. But over the next 25 years, he witnessed the rise of Vladimir Putin and the erosion of civil liberties. In his new book, The Descent: Witnessing Russia’s Spiral into Madness Under Putin, Marc charts how one man remade Russia in his own paranoid image. This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory Guest: Marc Bennetts, foreign correspondent, The Times.  Host: Manveen Rana.  Producer: Micaela Arneson.  We want to hear from you - email: thestory@thetimes.com Read more: Lies and fear: my life under the Kremlin’s propaganda machine Further listening: ‘I took a grenade blast to escape’: Russian deserters speak to The Times Clips: Channel One Russia, Educational Video Group, NBC News, ITN, Times Now World, Dot’s Eye.  Photo: Getty Images. This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  • From the Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story.

  • I'm Manveen Rana.

  • I first met my future mother-in-law in 1999 or 2000, I think.

  • And at the time, she wasn't at all opposed to the fact that her daughter was going out with a British citizen.

  • She even said to us, why do you want to stay in Russia?

  • Why didn't you just move to Britain?

  • There's nothing good that's ever going to happen here.

  • And she was even angrier when we said, no, I don't want to stay.

  • We like you here.

  • It's interesting.

  • That's Mark Bennett, a Times foreign correspondent and dream son-in-law.

  • He lived in Russia for 25 years, got married out there,

  • had a family, and was our Moscow correspondent before he was forced to leave after the war in Ukraine began.

  • Over those 25 years, he witnessed the country change.

  • As the years went by, state media, state propaganda began to kind of ramp up the hatred,

  • the kind of sheer lunacy of their reporting.

  • And especially about Ukraine, but also about Britain,

  • about the West, telling Russians that the West was this kind of hell hole where children were forced to call up their mothers

  • and fathers, parent one and parent two, where.

  • In Scandinavia, sex with animals was legal and was encouraged.