McFaul's January 2024 Newsletter

My most recent projects and publications

Dear friends and colleagues,

Since I left the government in 2014, I have been writing a monthly newsletter sharing my activities and publications. Here is the one I wrote for January 2024! As always, I welcome your feedback!

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In January, we had many exciting events here at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). Early in the month, we hosted an Academy Award-winning director and actor Sean Penn for a screening of his latest documentary film, “Superpower.” The film depicts life in Ukraine in the days leading up to and immediately after Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. You can watch the trailer here. Penn, who was in Kyiv on the first day of the full-scale war interviewing President Zelenskyy, shared how moved he was by Ukraine’s unity, especially amid striking America’s polarization. You can read more about it here or listen to this episode of our World Class podcast.

This month, we had another important visitor deliver a fantastic lecture. Kumi Naidoo, a prominent South African human rights and environmental justice activist, in our annual Payne Distinguished Lecture Series, spoke about the climate crisis, highlighting how creative storytelling together with scientific evidence has the power to inspire change. More about it here.

As you have learned by now, I continue to analyze Russia’s war in Ukraine in my day-to-day. In my 10-minute micro-lecture at Stanford Reunion, I explain why we – Americans and all small d democrats – should care about Ukraine, which you can watch here. Despite recent Congressional debates on continuing U.S. aid to Ukraine, the case for the U.S. continuing to support Ukraine is crystal clear, as I wrote in Foreign Policy. As I wrote on Subsatck recently, “It’s Time for an Up or Down Vote on New Aid to Ukraine.”

After my trip to Lithuania (you can read my trip report here), where I attended the Snow Meeting, I grew even more concerned about the war spreading to other European countries, including Lithuania. My biggest takeaway from the conference is how much collateral damage is being done to American credibility by the delays regarding new assistance to Ukraine. And, by the way, at the Snow Meeting, it really snowed!

Interview with TV Rain — an independent media outlet in Russia.

I continue to coordinate the International Working Group on Russian Sanctions. In January we published papers on Exposing and Exploiting the Kremlin’s Software Networks and Dependencies and Challenges of Export Controls Enforcement: How Russia Continues to Import Components for Its Military Production. You can read all of our papers here. We are always looking for more ways to hinder Russia’s ability to wage its war in Ukraine. If you have any ideas, please reach out and share.

In January, I also joined Ekaterina Kotrikadze on TVRain to discuss Putin’s progress in Ukraine as well as his broader campaign to weaken NATO. It is in Russian, but you can watch it here. I also did numerous hits to MSNBC, mostly discussing the war in Ukraine and our debates about future military assistance to Ukraine.  

To stay updated on events, opportunities, and policy recommendations by scholars at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, please sign up for FSI email blasts and follow us on LinkedIn. As always, feel free to share your comments on the content below and any suggestions for improving this newsletter. To sign up for the newsletter, please click here. And if you don’t already, follow me on Twitter at @McFaul. And join me on Substack at McFaul’s World!


Keep in touch,
Mike