Revenge

Raimund Löw in conversation with Michael Thumann

Revenge
How Putin created the most threatening regime in the world

Few people know Russia better than Michael Thumann, who has been reporting from Eastern Europe for DIE ZEIT for over 25 years. With „Revanche“, he has produced a breathtakingly written book that traces Russia's descent into an increasingly totalitarian dictatorship and the path to Putin's imperialist war at close quarters. The motive of the dictator and his followers: to take revenge for the democratic opening after 1991 and the supposed humiliation by the West. Putin's rule continues to radicalise. It has become the most threatening regime in the world.
Raimund Löw talks to Michael Thumann about Russia's politics and society in times of war, about „Planet Putin“ and what sustains and moves it.

Michael Thumann is a foreign affairs correspondent for DIE ZEIT and lives in Moscow. He has been reporting from Russia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East for DIE ZEIT since the 1990s. His articles, podcasts and books on Russia as a multi-ethnic state and Putin's new nationalism have broadened our view of this country. He has known Russia since his student days, when he studied at Moscow's Lomonosov University, among other places.

Raimund Löw, journalist, author and historian, is the director of Falter Radio. Before that, he reported for ORF as a foreign correspondent since the 1980s, including from Moscow, Brussels, Washington and Beijing

In co-operation with Falter Radio

Michael Thumann:
Revenge. How Putin created the most threatening regime in the world
Publisher C.H.Beck, 2023, 288 pages, ISBN 978-3-406-79935-8