THE DARK HEART OF RUSSIA
Edited by Jonathan Fink • Gibson Square • Published 9 May 2026
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30 of the World’s Leading Experts Deliver the Definitive Verdict on Russia, the Kremlin, and the War That Is Reshaping the West and the Global Order. Published on Victory Day — the day Russia celebrates its greatest military triumph — at is loses the war in Ukraine in real-time.

The Dark Heart of Russia is a landmark anthology drawn for their exceptional insight into Russia from nearly one thousand long-form interviews recorded for the Silicon Curtain podcast. It brings together thirty of the world’s most authoritative voices on Russia and Ukraine in a single, unflinching portrait of what it has become under Putin: “the midwife of modern imperialism and post-truth populist politics.” This is not a book of diplomatic nuance, but an X-ray of the rogue nation of our time.
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THE CONTRIBUTORS
Analytical, military and strategic voices: former NATO commanding officers General David H. Petraeus, General Sir Richard Shirreff, General Mark Hertling, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges.
Intelligence, policy and academia: Fiona Hill (former NSC Russia director), Garry Kasparov, Bill Browder, Peter Pomerantsev, Mark Galeotti, Luke Harding, John Sweeney, Keir Giles, Owen Matthews, Alexander Etkind, David Satter, John Lough, Timothy Ash, Elisabeth Braw, James Nixey, Anders Puck Nielsen. Plus Ukrainian voices: Oleksandra Romantsova (Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Centre for Civil Liberties), Volodymyr Yermolenko, Olena Halushka, Anna Danylchuk, Sasha Dovzhyk, Olga Tokariuk.
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Fiona Hill is a British-American foreign affairs specialist and author. She is a former official at the U.S. National Security Council, specializing in Russian and European affairs, and was a witness in the November 2019 House hearings during the first impeachment of Donald Trump. She earned a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University in 1998. She currently serves as a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington and will take up office as Chancellor of Durham University in England in summer of this year. She recently served as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council from 2017 to 2019. From 2006 to 2009, she served as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at The National Intelligence Council.
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BOOKS:
There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century (2021)
Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin (2015)
The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia Out in the Cold (2003)
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DESCRIPTION:
Vladimir Putin and his inner circle have pulled Europe into an earlier era of great-power conflict, driven by a hardened worldview shaped by Soviet upbringing, KGB service, and a mental map that treats Ukraine and Belarus as part of Russia. It describes Putin’s increasingly centralized “vertical of power,” intensified isolation and legacy-focus during COVID, and his use of selective historical narratives to control the present and dictate Ukraine’s future through spheres-of-influence thinking. The speakers contend the West misread these assumptions, while Putin misread Ukraine and expected quick capitulation in 2022 amid perceived Western weakness. They reject claims of Western provocation, warn that conceding territory would not end pressure, note shifting European security calculations like Finland and Sweden seeking NATO cover, and end with promotion of the book “The Dark Heart of Russia,” featuring 30 interviews critical of Kremlin imperialism and stressing support for Ukraine.
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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Putin Rewinds History
00:56 KGB Roots and Soviet Mindset
02:36 COVID Isolation and Groupthink
05:01 History as a Weapon
08:03 West Misreads Spheres
10:56 America Europe and NATO
15:55 One Man System Risks
22:51 Why 2022 Looked Ripe
24:28 Why Ukraine Can't Quit
28:29 Ukraine Future and Corruption
31:54 Never Again and Book Plug
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