Having entered already the third year of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, one can hardly disagree that it is immensely important that apart from operational level assessments and analyzing what’s happening at the frontline, we also have to look into the social and societal aspects of this war. That is, shift our focus from purely tangible or quantitative factors to also intangible elements affecting military, its effectiveness and performance. Therefore, in this podcast, we’ll be focusing on the relationship between the society and the armed forces. In other words, the challenges of civil-military relations with a special focus on the Russian armed forces. Host: research assistant Oona-Maaria Hyppölä. Guests: visiting professor Bettina Renz and researcher Jonna Alava.