African summits may be in vogue worldwide, and Russia’s recent summit in Sochi in late October was no exception. A PassBlue correspondent, Joe Penney, traveled to the Black Sea resort to report on President Vladimir Putin’s pitch to African leaders, as he promoted a second African independence, this time a financial one, with offers of major development projects like nuclear power plants. Yet Russia is the No. 1 supplier of weapons to Africa, and many African delegates didn’t pass up a chance to hold and pose with Kalashnikovs at the summit.
In our ninth podcast episode, you can also hear highlights from our exclusive interview, in New York, with the former Swedish foreign minister and mother of feminist foreign policy, Margot Wallstrom. She talks frankly about its origins, hurdles and whether it will keep thriving in Sweden and elsewhere.
To hear the interviews with Joe Penney and Margot Wallstrom in this latest UN-Scripted episode, download it here or at Apple Podcasts, Pod Paradise, Spotify, SoundCloud, Stitcher, TuneIn, Patreon or Google Play.
Stéphanie Fillion is a New York-based reporter specializing in foreign affairs and human rights who has been writing for PassBlue regularly for a year, including co-producing UN-Scripted, a new podcast series on global affairs through a UN lens. She has a master’s degree in journalism, politics and global affairs from Columbia University and a B.A. in political science from McGill University. Fillion was awarded a European Union in Canada Young Journalists fellowship in 2015 and was an editorial fellow for La Stampa in 2017. She speaks French, English and Italian.
Kacie Candela is an assistant editor for PassBlue and a news anchor and reporter with WFUV, a public radio station in the Bronx, N.Y., where she covers the UN and other beats. Her work has won various awards from the New York State Associated Press Association, New York State Broadcasters Association, PRNDI, and the Alliance for Women in Media.
