6. The Believer

Playing cat and mouse games with the world and using so-called little green men for masked warfare – what Russia's annexation of part of Ukraine in 2014 tells us about Vladimir Putin.“Like tsars through the centuries, Putin sees himself as the rightful heir and the guardian of one true Christian faith,” says Lucy Ash, who has seen first-hand how the Russian leader has used religion to justify war and bolster his image. To make sense of the man everyone is trying to figure out, Jonny Dymond is joined by:Lucy Ash, BBC reporter and author of the upcoming book “The Baton and the Cross” about the Russian Orthodox Church under Putin
Steven Lee Myers, New York Times correspondent and former Moscow bureau chief
Dr Gulnaz Sharafutdinova, professor of Russian politics at Kings College London and author of “Red Mirror: Putin's Leadership and Russia's Insecure IdentityProduction coordinators: Sophie Hill and Siobhan ReedSound engineer: Rod Farquhar
Producers: Caroline Bayley, Sandra Kanthal, Joe Kent
Series Editor: Emma Rippon
Commissioning Editor: Richard Knight