Aleksandr Baunov

On 22.12.2023, the Russian Ministry of Justice added him to the register of media outlets and individuals performing the functions of a foreign agent.

He graduated from the Department of Classical Philology at the Faculty of Philology of Lomonosov Moscow State University.

For five years he served in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including four and a half years as press attaché at the Embassy of Russia in Greece.

He worked for five years at the Russian edition of Newsweek magazine. From 2009 to 2015, he was senior editor of the Slon.ru portal.

About himself:

Over the past five-odd years as an international reporter, I have, as they say, seen the world. My northernmost report was from Tromsø in Arctic Norway, my southernmost from Cape Town, my easternmost from Kyoto, and my westernmost from Santiago, Chile. I have also seen people: together with Ethiopians I celebrated their year 2000 in our 2007, together with Lebanese I covered their “Cedar Revolution,” together with Ukrainians I covered their revolutionary “Eurovision.” Together with Venezuelans I elected Chávez, with the French Sarkozy, with Americans Obama, with Iranians Ahmadinejad. I spoke with an Iranian ayatollah who was pro-Western and with members of Hezbollah, with new Black oligarchs in South Africa, with heroes of old velvet and recent color revolutions, with priests of the militarist Yasukuni shrine and with China’s leading rock star named Tsoi, with residents of Rio’s slums and with those affected by Katrina in New Orleans, and with people dissatisfied with insurance companies.

And what came before that? Five years of public service in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including four and a half years at the Embassy of Russia in Greece. There, as in any relatively small embassy, my sphere of responsibility was multilayered. For some I was the press attaché, for others the cultural officer, for still others a member of the group dealing with Russia-EU relations. And all of that was true. I also wrote a speech for Putin and took important Russian guests to the Acropolis. At the same time, I traveled almost all over Greece. How could I not write a couple