For those whose first thoughts of Iran are formed by recollection of Ayatollahs, of alleged state support for terrorism and of power plays in the Middle East, allow me to give you a needed jolt.
Last night I had the pleasure of participating in a half-hour feature news program of Press TV, which broadcasts internationally in English and French. The subject of our “debate” or more properly speaking “discussion,” was the U.S. diplomatic moves of the previous couple of days with respect to China (the Blinken delegation to Anchorage) and to Russia (President Biden’s designation of Vladimir Putin as a ‘killer’).
The producers had sagely invited for the interview an expert on China based in Budapest, Hungary and an expert on Russia, myself, based in Brussels. I leave it to you to judge the quality of Iranian journalism that we see in the program. I will only remark that the choice of my counterpart was quite remarkable given that Iran was the host of our talk: Mr. Szamuely very plainly is a strong supporter of Donald Trump, who had been fairly vicious in his treatment of Tehran during his four years in office. So be it.
Gilbert Doctorow's latest book, "War Diaries. The Russia-Ukraine War, 2022-2023" is a unique contribution to literature on the war thanks to the author's reports on the Russian home front written during his periodic visits to St Petersburg at a time when Russia no longer issued visas and nearly all Western journalists had left the country. Doctorow's two-volume "Memoirs of a Russianist" published in 2020 also constitutes a category of its own, consisting largely of diary entries rather than reminiscences written decades later.. Volume 2 focuses on the community of 50,000 expatriate managers working and living in Moscow during the 1990s, about which none of his peers has yet to write.
Gilbert Doctorow is a professional Russia watcher and actor in Russian affairs going back to 1965. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College (1967), a past Fulbright scholar, and holder of a Ph.D. with honors in history from Columbia University (1975).
After completing his studies, Mr. Doctorow pursued a business career focused on the USSR and Eastern Europe. For twenty-five years he worked for US and European multinationals in marketing and general management with regional responsibility.
From 1998-2002, Doctorow served as the Chairman of the Russian Booker Literary Prize in Moscow. During the 2010-2011 academic year, he was a Visiting scholar of the Harriman Institute, Columbia University.
Mr. Doctorow is a long-time resident of Brussels.
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I have followed Mr. Szamuely for some time on RT, and I am not aware of him presenting himself as a “supporter” for Mr. Trump, rather as one who can differentiate between the positive sides of Trumps efforts – however much they failed, mostly through his choice of personnel – to reduce foreign interventions and critique of NATO his negative stance towards China and his interference in places the US sees as its own backyard.
Gilbert Doctorow 
I have followed Mr. Szamuely for some time on RT, and I am not aware of him presenting himself as a “supporter” for Mr. Trump, rather as one who can differentiate between the positive sides of Trumps efforts – however much they failed, mostly through his choice of personnel – to reduce foreign interventions and critique of NATO his negative stance towards China and his interference in places the US sees as its own backyard.
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