Tanya Mosley

Heather Ann Thompson, thank you so much for this book.

Heather Ann Thompson's book is Fear and Fury, the Reagan 80s, the Bernie Getz shootings, and the rebirth of white rage.

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With Terry Gross, I'm Tanya Mosley.

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I'm Tanya Mosley.

Four years ago, filmmaker Julia Lochtev landed in Moscow to investigate the revival of an old Kremlin weapon, the label Foreign Agent, a phrase with deep roots in Soviet-era repression.

It was being applied not only to organizations, but to reporters, bloggers, and human rights groups that had spent decades documenting political persecution.

Armed with an iPhone, Lakhtov embedded herself among a group of young journalists working for TV Rain, Russia's last independent television channel, as well as other independent journalists who were deemed foreign agents.

The result is My Undesirable Friends, Part 1, Last Air in Moscow.

a five and a half hour documentary that has swept major critics awards and stand as a record of what it looks like when dissent is slowly criminalized in real time.

Here's Julia Lochtev describing how she first entered that world.

By the end of that year, the Kremlin labeled more than 100 individuals and outlets as foreign agents.

Those designated were required to stamp government disclaimers on everything they published, even personal social media posts, with penalties that could include steep fines or imprisonment.