Many Americans have been looking for an explanation for Mr. Trump's apparent adoration of Mr. Putin. How can a powerful, wealthy American… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
I looked at Putin and was terrified from the very beginning. That makes me look very prescient because he actually turned out… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
I think that Russia was like a lot of other countries, a lot of empires, in being a tyranny up until the… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
For the first stage of his dictatorship, Vladimir Putin was involved in destroying public space. On the first day he was in… — 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… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
For the first ten years, Vladimir Putin was constructing his power structure, and now he's defending it. He's retrenching, mobilizing a shrinking… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
Russia, at the start of the 21st century, at least in its larger cities, very much resembled the United States of the… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
Putin set out to build a mafia state. He didn't set out to build a totalitarian regime. But he was building his… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
There's nothing effective against Trump. Trump is Trump. Trump is going to lie. Trump is going to act the way he's acting.… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
Putin has this ritual of having the televised meetings with ministers. Cameras will be allowed in to film the first five minutes… — Masha Gessen Copy Share Image
The rest of Russia is watching the same television that Vladimir Putin is watching. As far as they're concerned, Pussy Riot was… — 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
