With nearly 10 million subscribers, India’s largest English-language global broadcaster, WION (stands for ‘the World is One’) is an important media force. I consider it an honor to have been invited by them to deliver commentary on Russia-related events going back more than two years.
During that time their programming has changed somewhat: more daily coverage is handled strictly by their own journalist staff and outside experts are less frequent guests. Nonetheless, when they do extend an invitation, as they did early this morning, it is to participate in a well-prepared discussion with one of their lead presenters.
You will note that the presenter slipped in the word ‘aggression’ when speaking of the latest Russian advances on front lines in Ukraine. This is understandable because Indian public opinion is fairly divided between the United States and Russian positions, and when inviting on air an analyst known to be critical of U.S. narratives like myself, the broadcaster balances this out by leaning a bit in the other direction.
I recall a comment from a listener to one of my early interviews with WION: ‘he makes good sense for a white man!’ I hope to continue to find fans among their Indian as well as foreign audiences.
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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Gilbert Doctorow 