The Gist

Russia Doesn’t Have Any Friends

What are we missing in all the coverage of the Kremlin’s election skullduggery?

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlim on March 24 in Moscow.

Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

Listen to Episode 711 of Slate’s The Gist:

Why does Russia find NATO so deeply offensive? Tom Nichols says it comes down to something quite human. NATO represents all of the successes that Russia couldn’t quite manage to achieve: “Part of the reason Russians hate NATO is because Russia just doesn’t have any friends in the world.” Nichols is a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College. He’ll be back on the show soon to discuss his new book, The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters.

In the Spiel, there was some damn fine inquiry on the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday.

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