Our Dear Friends in Moscow tells the story of a group of young Russians, a group of friends, against the backdrop of Putin’s ruthless, 20-year campaign to turn Russia into an aggressive, revanchist dictatorship. Some of these friends became key figures in the campaign, one was killed, and two (the authors) went into exile.
"Our Dear Friends in Moscow is a work of powerfully intimate reportage which tracks the spiritual and emotional journey of a cadre of young reporters who came of age between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of Putin; between those brief years of journalistic freedom and the return of nationalistic censorship in which, for a writer, the choice was to become either a government flack or be hounded into exile or worse. What each of these friends opted to do; resist or submit and the cost of these decisions on all aspects of their lives yields a portrait of a talented generation who aged into a future that none of them saw coming." - Richard Price, novelist and screenwriter for The Wire.
The event is taking place in Bush House North East wing, room 1.03.
SPEAKERS
Andrei Soldatov is a Russian investigative journalist in exile, co-founder and editor of Agentura ru, a watchdog of the Russian secret services’ activities.
He has been covering security services and terrorism issues since 1999.
He is co-author with Irina Borogan of The New Nobility (PublicAffairs, 2010), The Red Web (PublicAffairs, 2015), and The Compatriots (PublicAffairs, 2019).
Now Soldatov lives in exile in London: he has been on Russia’s wanted list since 2022.
Irina Borogan is a Russian investigative journalist in exile.
Borogan reported on terrorist attacks in Russia, including hostage takings in Moscow and Beslan. In 1999 Borogan covered the NATO bombing in Yugoslavia, in 2006 she covered the Lebanon War and tensions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. She chronicled the Kremlin’s campaign to gain control of civil society and strengthen the government’s police services under the pretext of fighting extremism.
She is co-author with Andrei Soldatov of The New Nobility (PublicAffairs, 2010), The Red Web (PublicAffairs, 2015), and The Compatriots (PublicAffairs, 2019).
She lives in London.
