Belgrade Away Day: Football, History, Politics and War
The scoreboard before Red Star Belgrade vs Manchester City, Belgrade, Serbia, 13 December 2023 A LIFELONG DEVOTION TOOK ME TO BELGRADE. Not a devotion to Belgrade itself, or a strong desire to visit it ahead of cities I had never seen. My work as a writer or lecturer would...
GAZA: evacuation, and memories of 1948
A car passes ruined buildings and Israeli fortifications near Khan Younis, August 2002 © James Rodgers From 2002 to 2004, I was the BBC’s correspondent in Gaza: at the time, the only international journalist based in the territory. This post is an extract from my book ‘No Road Home:...
MOSCOW, OCTOBER 1993: when tank shells settled Russia’s political crisis
This was the worst political violence in Moscow since Russia's revolutionary year of 1917, and was much more than an aftershock of the political earthquake that had brought down Soviet power. ...
At Henley Literary Festival, Friday 6 October
On Friday 6 October, I will be appearing at Henley Literary Festival, in conversation with Keir Giles about our books on Russia. Keir is the author of Russia’s War on Everybody, published, like my own Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia from Lenin to Putin, by Bloomsbury. We will be...
New podcast: Israel, Palestine, and the Oslo Accords
Graffiti on part of the barrier between Israel and the West Bank, June 2014. Photo © James Rodgers This week, my City, University of London colleague Professor Amnon Aran and I have released the first episode of our three part podcast series, Inside the Oslo Accords. We are making...
Denmark: F-16’s to Ukraine for war with Russia; on holiday beaches, scars from WWII
The corner of a World War II German military bunker on the island of Fanø, Denmark, August 2023 My latest post is from Denmark, where I have been on holiday, on its decision to send F-16 warplanes to Ukraine, and on its own history of being occupied during World...
Berlin: the Soviet Union and Germany; Russia and Ukraine; War and Peace
A detail of a mosaic at the Soviet War memorial, Treptower Park, Berlin, February 2023. © James Rodgers. This post is a longer version of an article I wrote for The New European, published April 19 2023. You can read the article here. ‘GLORY’, THE GILDED TILES that spell...
Assignment Moscow: new edition out on May 18
THE NEW EDITION OF ‘ASSIGNMENT MOSCOW: REPORTING ON RUSSIA FROM LENIN TO PUTIN’ will be published in the U.K. and U.S. on May 18. It includes new material covering the Covid-19 pandemic; the jailing of the Russian opposition politician, Alexei Navalny, and, of course, Russia’s escalation of its war...
Russia and Ukraine: 12 months in the media war
THE MEDIA WAR THAT HAS ACCOMPANIED RUSSIA’S INVASION OF UKRAINE has shown how important a part of 21st century conflict journalism is, and also demonstrated the power authoritarian regimes possess to restrict reporting–even in the age of smartphones and social media. In a move that echoed the draconian censorship...
Reporting from Russia: live event at the Frontline Club, London, January 20th 2023
ON FRIDAY 20TH JANUARY AT 1900 I will be chairing a live discussion, ‘Reporting from Russia’, at the Frontline Club in London. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a war not only on a neighbouring country, but also a war on journalism. New laws rushed through the Russian parliament in...