A political conversation is a conversation in which people with different views come to agreements about how they're going to inhabit this… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
If human rights are an attribute of being human, then we must consider the fact that tens of millions of displaced people… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
It's not natural for people in the opposition to leave. It's always a personal catastrophe. — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
Putin needed an enemy, an Other, against which to mobilize. LGBT people are really convenient: we're sort of the ultimate foreign agent. — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
Since 9/11 we have somehow come to accept the 'radicalization' narrative, which basically holds that people become terrorists through a series of… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
One of the most famous lines in contemporary Russian poetry is "Erica makes four copies and that's enough." That's the ethos we're… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
I would much rather engage people in a conversation about deregulation and reversals of women's rights and civil rights and LGBT rights… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
It seems that probably Putin's father maintained some connection to the secret police throughout his life. One sign of that is that… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
We learn to think of history as something that has already happened, to other people. Our own moment, filled as it is… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
First of all, radical beliefs are not a predictor of terrorist behavior: most people who hold radical beliefs never become terrorists, and… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
There was this very strange moment when the world discovered what was going on for LGBT people in Russia. It was very… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
Most Russians believe they've never met an LGBT person in their lives. Also they immediately see LGBT people as 'other,' lending to… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
You can't expect people who didn't exist as a community at all until about twenty years ago to have formed a political… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
Take the people facing charges in connection with the protests that occurred on the eve of Vladimir Putin's third-term inauguration, May 6,… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
It is the first time since 1993 that Russians have come out into the streets without an explicit permission from the government… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
Conceit of the anti-gay law in Russia is to protect children, then the people who have the most to fear are LGBT… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
With Pussy Riot - this was a prank! It was a brilliant, artistically gifted prank. But they didn't expect to go to… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
For example, if you are a blogger who wrote something about a local official and you're going to prison for that, you're… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
When I was touring with my Vladimir Putin biography, which was published all over the world, people would ask me, How come… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
LGBT people are really convenient: we're sort of the ultimate foreign agent in Russia. There's no doubt in anyone's mind that the… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
There are several dozen political prisoners in Russia. When I cite that number people are often very surprised. They often think there… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
I think some people have blind faith in American institutions without knowing a whole lot about them and think they will stand… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
Putin was very careful to gradually sort of rotate people in and out of power, to make sure that he had competent… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
My hypothesis is that for people who are both trained and inclined to think in rigorously logical ways, it is particularly difficult… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
Now, academics are not always the easiest people to talk to, and the scholarly papers aren't always the easiest papers to read,… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
For Russians in the '90s, there was that sense of not knowing what the future held at all. And coming off a… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
There's this American pretense, which is the pretense of the journalist with the view from nowhere - which has somehow morphed into the journalist… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
Pussy Riot have certainly changed some people's assumptions about the role of political art and the relationship between the intelligentsia and the church. That's… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
Trump, like Putin, has a demonstrably thin skin and short temper when it comes to being criticized by journalists. — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
You risk everything if you so much as join a legal protest demonstration in Russia. It raises the stakes. — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
Donald Trump creates word salads. And that is awful to language, because we try to parse out what he's saying and try to find… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
It is the first time since 1993 that Russians have come out into the streets without an explicit permission from the government to do… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
I think Donald Trump was brought to power by Americans. They voted for him. — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
In the 1990s, there was a lot of reform, and there was a lot of forward movement on a lot of fronts in Russia.… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
Poverty and scarcity are actually very good for totalitarian societies. They maintain that sense of mobilization that's essential for totalitarian societies. — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
I think that Putin's strategy has been throwing a lot of money, fairly haphazardly, at a lot of projects aimed at disrupting Western relations… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
Both Trump and Putin use language primarily to communicate not facts or opinions but power: it's not what the words mean that matters but… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
