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On this week’s Slate Political Gabfest, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, Jamelle Bouie, and Will Dobson discuss Putin’s latest maneuvers in Ukraine, the “lived experience” of African-Americans during the Obama administration, and the sexual assault investigation against Florida State University quarterback Jameis Winston.

Here are some of the links and references mentioned during this week’s show:

• Top diplomats announced a deal Thursday that could defuse the Ukraine crisis. But hours earlier, Putin emphasized that the Russian parliament has given him permission to use force in Ukraine.
• There are as many as 40,000 Russian troops on the Ukraine border. NATO is increasing military efforts in the region.
• Putin is reinventing how Russia wages war, Anne Applebaum writes.
• Race has become the primary grievance in American politics, Jonathan Chait writes in New York.
• Chait’s article ignored the lived experience of minorities, Jamelle writes.
• There’s been an increase in concentrated poverty in the past decade. Blacks are more likely to live in a poor neighborhood than any other group, Jamelle writes.
• Black enrollment has declined recently at University of Virginia, John and Jamelle’s alma mater.
• This week’s Audible recommendation is Autobiography of an Execution by David Dow.
• Police and Florida State University authorities failed to follow obvious leads in the sexual assault investigation against star quarterback Jameis Winston, Walt Bogdanich writes in the New York Times.
• Emily has written repeatedly about the Winston case.

Emily chatters about George Saunders’ advice to graduates, which is now available as a book.

Jamelle chatters about the cartoon Bob’s Burgers.

John chatters about George Washington’s journey from Mount Vernon to New York for his inauguration. Much to Washington’s dismay, the ambivalent president-elect was waylaid by celebratory feasts, street parades, and rose petal-hurling virgins who burst into song at his approach.

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Topic ideas for next week? You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest. The email address for the Political Gabfest is gabfest@slate.com. (Email may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Mike Vuolo. Links compiled by Rebecca Cohen.