Howard Amos

Rescuers in Norway resume search for journalist missing in wilderness Bad weather hampers search for Alec Luhn after he set out for solo hike in remote Folgefonna national park Rescuers in Norway have resumed the search for an award-winning environmental journalist who has gone missing in bad weather during a solo hike in the remote Folgefonna national park, home to one of the country’s biggest glaciers. Alec Luhn, a US-born reporter who has worked for the New York Times and the Atlantic and was a regular Russia correspondent for the Guardian from 2013 to 2017, was reported missing on Monday after he failed to catch a flight from Bergen. Continue reading...

Rescuers in Norway resume search for journalist missing in wilderness

Find it out, write it down, get it out there. Leonid Bershidsky remembers pioneering journalist Derk Sauer — Meduza Derk Sauer, who died in Amsterdam on Thursday at the age of 72, was a figure of rare consequence in the history of post-Soviet journalism. A former reporter and editor in the Netherlands, he departed…

Derk Sauer, who died in Amsterdam on Thursday at the age of 72, was a figure of rare consequence in the history of post-Soviet journalism. Leonid Bershidsky, the first editor-in-chief of Sauer's storied Vedomosti newspaper, offers this remembrance. meduza.io/en/feature/2...

Pjotr Sauer schrijft een afscheidscolumn voor zijn overleden vader Derk: ‘Ik ga ontelbaar veel dingen aan hem missen’

Pjotr Sauer schrijft een afscheidscolumn voor zijn overleden vader Derk: ‘Ik ga ontelbaar veel dingen aan hem missen’

I will be speaking about my book 'Russia Starts Here' with Joshua Yaffa on Thursday evening in Berlin - do come along!
www.shakespeareandsons.com/pages/26-6-m...

"Russia Starts Here reminded me of the surveys of Russian peasants that were written in the late 18th and early 19th centuries... which did so much to change perceptions of ordinary Russians amongst the ruling classes. This book has the potential to do the same for a western audience."

🟥 Putin picks Trump over Iran Hello and welcome to the first edition of our new English-language newsletter—your essential guide to Russian politics and economics.

🟥 please welcome the first edition of our new English-language newsletter—your essential guide to Russian politics and economics. this time our main stories are about why Putin picks Trump over Iran and DME airport ownership saga

subscribe and spread the word! faridaily.substack.com/p/putin-pick...

A Frozen Conflict: The Dilemmas of Seizing Russia’s Money for Ukraine | International Crisis Group Several countries froze Russian assets after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but legal and economic hurdles make it hard to confiscate these funds to support Kyiv. In this Q&A, Crisis Group explai...

Thinking of seizing some frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine? This new Q&A from the @crisisgroup.org team lays out the facts, the arguments and the impediments (legal and otherwise) thoughtfully, concretely, and in detail.

‘She lived without fear’: daughter of Chechen activist publishes book she vowed to pen after mother’s murder Lana Estemirova promised to tell story of her mother, a renowned human rights activist. This month it is published

Wrote this on Lana Estemirova’s new book Please Live, about her mother Natalia, the rights activist murdered in Chechnya in 2009, her work and their relationship.

It’s a powerful, beautiful read - can’t recommend highly enough.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

The Best Nonfiction Books on Russia: The 2025 Pushkin House Prize The Pushkin House Book Prize is awarded annually for a nonfiction book that encourages "public understanding and intelligent debate about Russia." Political scientist Gulnaz Sharafutdinova, chair of…

NEW: "I hope I’ve done them all justice. They’re incredible books." Political scientist ‪@gulnazsharaf.bsky.social‬ talks us through the shortlist of this year's Pushkin House Book Prize, awarded annually for a nonfiction book about Russia:
fivebooks.com/best-books/r...

LGBTQ+ Resistance - The Moscow Times Podcast | Repressive laws and a wartime crackdown have made Russia’s LGBTQ+ community more invisible than ever.

In this episode of the Russia Underground podcast, the hosts speak to two LGBTQ+ activists in Russia who continue what they are doing despite the risks.

‘Images of loneliness’ Russian photographer Alexander Gronsky on what it’s like to document a country closing in on itself — Meduza Alexander Gronsky is an award-winning photographer who, despite the political repressions and society’s increasing militarization, continues to live and work in Russia. He has two roles in Meduza’s…

Award-winning photographer Alexander Gronsky on continuing to live and work in Russia amid political repression and growing militarization.
meduza.io/en/feature/2...

It really was!

The Soviet plan to reverse Siberia's rivers with 'peaceful nuclear explosions' In the 1970s, the USSR used nuclear devices to try to send water from Siberia's rivers flowing south, instead of its natural route north.

For BBC Future, I wrote a piece for about the Soviet plan (it never happened) to reverse some of the country's great rivers, diverting them south to Central Asia:
www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

Russia Starts Here: Real Lives in the Ruins of Empire. Howard Amos in Conversation with Tom Parfitt Talk: Russia Starts Here: Real Lives in the Ruins of Empire. Howard Amos in Conversation with Tom Parfitt

I'll be in conversation with Tom Parfitt at Pushkin house on June 5th about my book 'Russia Starts Here'. If you're in London do come along!
www.pushkinhouse.org/whats-on/eve...

Journalism Against the Odds - The Moscow Times Podcast | Russia Underground takes you on a journey to meet the Russians who continue to battle for free speech, artistic freedoms and basic human rights despite Putin’s brutal wartime crackdown.

🎙️ Episode 2 of the Russia Underground podcast hears from some of the independent journalists still operating in Russia, evading wartime censorship and trying to avoid jail:

Life on the Margins - The Moscow Times Podcast | Russia Underground takes you on a journey to meet the Russians who continue to battle for free speech, artistic freedoms and basic human rights despite Putin’s brutal wartime crackdown.

🎙️ Episode 1 of the Russia Underground podcast is an introduction to what it means to be "underground" in modern Russia, and the ways anti-war Russians can — and do — express their opposition.

Listen here:

'A remarkable book about a beautiful island.'

Happy publication day to the gorgeous paperback edition of Cypria by @christofi.bsky.social!

This evocative, lyrical book tells the history of Cyprus from the era of gods and goddesses to the present day.

I've got two events about 'Russia Starts Here' coming up in London: Wednesday 14th May at Kings for the Great Britain-Russia Society (www.gbrussia.org/russia-start...) and Thursday 5th June at Pushkin House (www.pushkinhouse.org/whats-on/eve...). Both are in person & online. Please join!

Russia’s forgotten corner As a university student in 2007, Howard Amos volunteered in a summer camp at an orphanage for children with mental and physical disabilities near the city of Pskov, in the northwest corner of Russia. ...

"A wistful account of the country’s years of dimming hope and gathering darkness"... Surreal to see a review of 'Russia Starts Here' in the TLS alongside reviews of books by authors (Shelia Fitzpatrick & @philippesands.bsky.social) I've admired for many years:
www.the-tls.co.uk/history/twen...

Inside Taganrog: beatings, electrocution and starvation at prison where Ukrainians were tortured Russia is holding an estimated 16,000 civilians in arbitrary detention at 180 separate facilities. Taganrog was the most notorious.

Yesterday we published our investigation into torture & death of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna.

Now, what I & several Guardian colleagues have been working on for past few months: inside one of Russia's worst torture prisons for Ukrainians

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Zurab Tsereteli, Sculptor of Grand Monuments and Putin Admirer, Dies at 91 - The Moscow Times Georgian-Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli, known for his towering and often controversial public monuments, has died at age 91, Russian state media reported Tuesday.

Born and trained in Tbilisi, Tsereteli rose to prominence in the 1960s, designing resort complexes in Soviet Georgia.

Very honoured to be shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize for 'Russia Starts Here'! Along with other amazing authors @lucyaash.bsky.social, @radchenko.bsky.social, @benjaminnathans.bsky.social, Donald Rayfield and even Alexei Navalny: www.pushkinhouse.org/projects/boo...

‘I am not who you think I am’: how a deep-cover KGB spy recruited his own son The long read: For the first time, the man the KGB codenamed ‘the Inheritor’ tells his story

Ahead of my book on the history of Russia's Illegals programme coming out next week, here's a taste in Guardian Longread form.

‘I am not who you think I am’: how a deep-cover KGB spy recruited his own son

www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ap...

Global markets tumble and is Doge coming to the UK? Guests Terry Stiastny and Andrew Thompson get the view from Wall Street as global markets plummet following Donald Trump’s tariffs and the UK debates shutting…

Latest Daily on Monocle Radio. @terrystiastny.bsky.social and Andrew Thompson on the day's stuff, plus @howardamos.bsky.social on his fine new book "Russia Starts Here". monocle.com/radio/shows/...

Anti-drone netting draped over apartment blocks in the Russian town of Shebekino on the Ukrainian border: t.me/lookatme1313...

Holidays in hell: summer camp with Russia’s forgotten children – podcast At the rural orphanage where I volunteered, the place resembled a Dickensian workhouse. The staff’s main tools were antipsychotics and violence. The experience gave me a window into Putin’s RussiaBy H...

You can now listen to my @theguardian.com long read extract from 'Russia Starts Here' in podcast form, read by Harry Lloyd: www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2...

‘I Confess to All the Crimes’: A Russian Soldier Admits to Executing a Civilian and Denounces His Commanders For one unbearable month, the Ukrainian village of Andriivka was terrorized by its Russian occupiers. Reporters from IStories pieced together a partial picture of the looting, mayhem, and murder perpe...

In August 2022, I adapted a story by Russian journalist Katia Fomina for OCCRP.

It's about as straightforward an investigation into war crimes as you can get. Katia went to Andriivka, a village near Kyiv that spent a month under Russian occupation. www.occrp.org/en/investiga...

"I was reminded of Svetlana Alexievich’s extraordinary Second-Hand Time" - a particularly flattering comparison in a review of 'Russia Starts Here' by @theartsdesk.bsky.social

Mediazona on the brink. We need 5,000 monthly subscribers to survive Mediazona is running out of money. We’ve had to cut staff and slash salaries. Editor-in-chief Sergey Smirnov and editor Dmitry Treshchanin will now be working without pay. If thing...

THIS IS AN EMERGENCY. Mediazona is struggling.

We’ve tracked 100K Russian casualties in Ukraine. Covered political prisoners repression. We survived Putin’s censors.

Our reporters risk prison. Our editors will now work without pay. We need your help: en.zona.media/article/2025...

a super cool book cover, with A TIGER ON IT

***cover reveal***
the cover of TIGERS BETWEEN EMPIRES incorporates a 1755 map of the Amur River basin and a tiger by wildlife artist John Banovich. Out in early November 2025 from @fsgbooks.bsky.social, preorder with abandon from your preferred seller!! 🐅🌍 #booksky
us.macmillan.com/.../978037.....