Arkady Ostrovsky

Arkady Ostrovsky is a Russian-born British journalist who serves as Russia and Eastern Europe editor for The Economist. Born in Moscow in 1970, he studied at St. Petersburg State University and at Cambridge University. He has spent his career covering Russia's political evolution and its relationship with the West, first for the Financial Times and then for The Economist. His book The Invention of Russia: The Journey from Gorbachev's Freedom to Putin's War (2015) is a landmark work of political journalism and intellectual history, tracing how Russia's media landscape was transformed from a brief period of post-Soviet openness into a powerful instrument of state propaganda. The book won the Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2016 and the PEN/Ackerley Prize. Ostrovsky's work is particularly valued for his insider perspective on Russian culture and politics, his clear-eyed analysis of the relationship between media, power, and public opinion, and his ability to render complex political history in vivid narrative form. He lives in London and continues to report on Russia and Eastern Europe.