Thirty years of U.S. ambassadors in Moscow

Meduza spoke to the two hosts of a special project organized by the Monterey Initiative in Russian Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. In roughly 16 hours of interviews, “The Ambassadorial Series” features in-depth conversations with eight of the living former U.S. ambassadors to Russia and the Soviet Union, each featuring personal reflections and recollections on high-stakes negotiations, as well as discussions about a range of geopolitical issues that still dog today’s relations between Moscow and Washington.

The Naked Pravda asked the two women who hosted the interviews, Jill Dougherty (an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, a fellow at the Wilson Center, and CNN’s former Moscow bureau chief) and Dr. Hanna Notte (a senior research associate at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non‑Proliferation), what they learned from talking to the ambassadors who represented America in Moscow over the past three decades.

Timestamps for this week’s episode:

• (3:06) How “The Ambassadorial Series” came together.
• (4:49) What sets apart 1990s U.S.-Russian diplomacy.
• (11:39) Key inflection points over the past 30 years.
• (18:45) Lessons that stand out in U.S. ambassadors’ recollections.
• (23:00) The death and rebirth of Kremlinology in the Information Age.

Producer, sound editing, and mixing — Kevin Rothrock

Send any questions or comments to kevin@meduza.io

Theme music — Victor Davydov

Additional music: Exotica by Juanitos (Allocation 2.0 France, CC BY 2.0 FR)