2018-2023
I'm curious by temperament and like looking at events through a reporter's lens. I can move in a crowd when things happen fast, and I can also do slow embedded observation - stay in a situation long enough to understand it from inside.
I wrote about politics, social issues, human rights, and fair trade. Reportage, analysis, and investigations.
Main themes
Politics and human rights. Elections, protest movements, human rights organisations. Material on political trials, activist detentions, and independent election observation.
Fair trade. Fairtrade - fair pay for producers in developing countries. Stories about coffee, cocoa, tea, and other goods produced to ethical standards.
Social issues. People on the margins of public attention: migrants, small nations, activists trying to change the system.
Torfyanka: one failed assignment
One assignment went wrong. Moscow, 2015. The city was running a "200 churches" programme - officials wanted to "restore historical justice" by building two hundred churches across the city. Church groups backed it; the "Forty Forties" movement supported it. Forty times forty is 1,600 - by their count, how many churches Moscow had before the revolution.
My friend Vitya, who lived nearby, called me. They had started building a church in the park - a cross was already up. Local residents were angry and blocked the construction equipment. They pitched tents and demanded the park back.
Under the plan, a large slice of the park would go to the church and everything that comes with it, including parking.
The "Forty Forties" showed up - people who had broken the law before and, they said, been redeemed through the church. They stood by the cross, declared themselves local residents too, and said they would not leave until construction resumed.
The stakes were wider: churches were being built or planned in several city parks. Stopping this one would set a precedent and threaten future projects.
Approach
I tried to write honestly, without exaggeration. Check facts, talk to people directly, use description instead of judgment where possible. The reader should have enough to draw their own conclusions - not a prefabricated opinion.
Journalism, for me, is a way to show what most people do not see. To speak about those who are not heard. And to do it so the piece still reads clearly years later.
Where I published
Online media and specialised journals.
What I learned
Work with facts. Ask the right questions. Listen and tell what matters from what is secondary. Structure complex stories so they stay clear and readable. Balance closeness to subjects with professional distance.
Good journalism is not pretty words - it is accuracy, honesty, and the ability to explain complicated things in plain language.