Russia is no longer a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. It’s a kleptocracy. One of the on-scene journalists who has most expertly detailed how it became one, how it presently operates, and the dangerous ambitions that now activate it’s elite, is David Satter. We spoke with David in an earlier podcast and then again after his return to Moscow. Here he is in full and fascinating form.

It’s Yemen. Does that surprise you? That may be because you’re a little light on your knowledge of the fifth century AD. Glen Bowersock, a great historian located at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, is our guest in this podcast as we discuss his new book The Throne of Adulis, about the Jewish rulers and people of Yemen who ultimately were overwhelmed by the newly risen force of Islam. The world was full of more things than were dreamt of in your college course on the history of the pre-Islamic middle east.

Even though the spotlight had shifted back to Congress, the delay or discard of Obamacare, and whether some Senate Democrats might defect, Syria still festers and the Obama performance still, shall we say, puzzles. We talked in September, 2013 with Victor Davis Hanson about what then was at issue – and how the President played it and was played.

On occasion we will put up a podcast of a past and “classic” encounter between Milt and a prominent political, journalistic or scholarly figure. Here’s a conversation with Henry Kissinger in 1994 which still makes much sense of international relations now.

With no holds barred, Elliott Abrams examines what he designates as the “Citizen of the World Foreign Policy” of President Obama with, inevitably, some special focus on Syria. Abrams, formerly on the Middle East beat for the State Department and the National Security Council, is now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.