Are the autocrats of the world trying to unite?

Vladimir Putin’s summits this week with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rohani were the latest illustrations of how the Kremlin leader is working overtime to build alliances with the illiberal regimes of the world.

On this week’s Power Vertical Podcast, we look at Putin’s efforts to build an Authoritarian International.

http://www.rferl.org/audio/27918190.html

Is it a true challenge to the West? Or an act of desperation?

Joining me are veteran Kremlin watcher James Sherr, an associate fellow with Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia program, and Daniel Drezner, a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a columnist for The Washington Post, and the author of the books Theories Of International Politics And Zombies and the recent The System Worked: How The World Stopped Another Great Depression.

Also on the podcast, James, Daniel, and I will discuss the tensions this week in Crimea and what they may portend.