Author: gilbertdoctorow

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.

Russia and European Energy Security: The Inevitable Intrusion of Geopolitics

All aspects of Europe’s relations with Russia including the energy dimension inevitably have a strong geopolitical overlay which at times becomes distorting beyond recognition. To put it in terms of everyman’s anecdotal Freud: here we have a cigar which is never just a cigar. Read on….

Continue reading “Russia and European Energy Security: The Inevitable Intrusion of Geopolitics” →

Year One of the Revolution: Travel Notes from Morocco

The results of the well controlled Arab Spring in Morocco are taking shape before our eyes as the first Islamist-headed government settles down to work. With God’s help, progress towards good governance may yet be made, notwithstanding the headwinds of economic recession blowing in from the Old Continent.  Read on…

Continue reading “Year One of the Revolution: Travel Notes from Morocco” →

Letter from Orlino: An American Discovers the Muscular Dynamism of One-Story Russia

In the 1930s, the Soviet humorists Ilf and Petrov entertained their readers with observations of their travels across the Depression-era United States in One-Story America (published in English as Little Golden America). In the following essay, I return the favor, describing the energy of renascent Russia.

Continue reading “Letter from Orlino: An American Discovers the Muscular Dynamism of One-Story Russia” →

Can a U.S. Ambassador to Russia be expelled? The pending case of Michael McFaul

In the countdown to the nearly certain Senate confirmation of U.S. Ambassador to Russia designate Dr. Michael McFaul, it might pay to consider why, if he follows his instincts and his experience, he may be the first U.S. Ambassador to be declared persona non grata in Moscow since October 3, 1952. Read on to find out why….

 

Continue reading “Can a U.S. Ambassador to Russia be expelled? The pending case of Michael McFaul” →