Noted historian Stephen Cohen died Friday at 81 of lung cancer. Cohen was a writer and professor at New York University and Princeton University who studied Russia, including the rise and fall of communism and Russian leadership. Stephen Cohen appeared on Democracy Now! many times. Here he is in December 2016, speaking about U.S.-Russia relations following the election of Donald Trump.

Stephen Cohen: “We now have three Cold War fronts that are fraught with hot war, the possibility of hot war — the Baltic area, Ukraine and Syria — between two nuclear powers. Things are very, very dangerous. We desperately need in this country a discussion of American policy toward Russia. We can’t keep saying an untruth, that this new Cold War is solely the fault of Putin.”

That was Stephen Cohen, who died Friday. He is survived by his three children, four grandchildren and his spouse, Katrina vanden Heuvel, editorial director and publisher of The Nation.