136 Quotes by Masha Gessen

I would not attribute any strategic thinking to Trump.

I mean, hunger strike is almost a ritual in a Russian prison colony. It actually has been going back to Soviet times. It's a way of protesting.

There's nothing effective against Trump. Trump is Trump. Trump is going to lie. Trump is going to act the way he's acting. No amount of reason, no amount of criticism, no amount of anything is going to work to change Trump's behavior. Putin is exactly the same way.

To effectively create the image of an enemy you have to show first of all that the enemy is extremely dangerous, but on the other hand less than human.

What Trump is not smart enough to even grasp is that the kind of popularity that Putin has can only be achieved in the context of retro-totalitarianism.

Putin is an uneducated, unintelligent, uncultured man who has no plan.

In war you're either a collaborator or you're a resistor. I mean you don't get to be neutral.

I've learned over the years to hear what Putin is railing against in his own railing way.

I realized - I've been an opposition journalist in Russia for a long time. And I've often considered how real risks are and how much of a risk I can take.