My latest Q&A is headed “A Reaganite from Serbia.” My guest is Ivana Stradner, an analyst of international affairs. Her affiliations are many — including SAIS (the School of Advanced International Studies), FDD (the Foundation for Defense of Democracies), and the Kyiv Post. Previously, she was a Jeane Kirkpatrick fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

She is a deep admirer of Ronald Reagan, her favorite U.S. president.

I wrote about her in my column last Friday. She was involved in a remarkable dust-up on Twitter, or X.

Elon Musk wrote, “Only the AfD can save Germany.” Ms. Stradner begged to differ. “If the AfD wins in Germany, we are going to have a very different world,” she wrote. “The AfD is not only dangerous for Europe but also for the USA.” This earned her derision from JD Vance, America’s vice president–elect. Vance also issued a kind of threat: “I wonder how much money this person’s employer gets from the American taxpayer?”

Russian media piled on Ivana. The AfD is strongly pro-Putin, in common with other populist-Right parties. Also piling on was the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, another Putin ally.

So, these people in high places were aligned against Ivana — whose mother weighed in:

Ivana Stradner is firm in her beliefs and she was unwavering before her antagonists: “The USA is a free country and they will not silence me.”

She was always drawn to freedom and democracy — and to the United States. The Milošević regime set an excellent counter-example for her. By the way, Mr. Vučić — the future prime minister and president — was Milošević’s propaganda chief.

In our podcast, Ms. Stradner and I talk about many things, personal and political. The Ukraine war is not just about Ukraine, she emphasizes. Putin is at war with the West. He is entirely candid about this when speaking to the Russian public. And he is allied with anti-American dictatorships all over: in Beijing, Tehran, Pyongyang, and elsewhere.

I ask her what I have asked others: “Can Ukraine survive without the support of the United States?” There is “very little chance” of that, she says.

She has established herself in America at an interesting time. She is an “old conservative,” it seems to me, and today’s Right is represented by JD Vance. But she is optimistic about our country, which she loves deeply. “Eventually, America will wake up and prevail,” she says. “America has always been a beacon of democracy and hope for a lot of people, and it will remain that way.”

I’m glad she’s here. Again, for my Q&A with Ivana Stradner, go here.