Today I discovered that the debate is scheduled for 7 May — without me. I have received no explanation for this change, nor any formal notice that I was no longer participating. 3/4

Some time ago I was invited to speak at a debate at The Oxford Union on the motion: “This House Would Rather go to War with Russia than Lose Ukraine.” I accepted and was due to speak for the motion. THREAD 1/4

The Russian authorities have designated our website, Agentura.ru, a “foreign agent.” Our mission hasn’t changed since its launch in Sept 2000: to shed light on Russia’s secret services — as I told @nytimes back then. We’ll keep doing it. www.nytimes.com/2000/12/21/t...

Grateful for recent attention to Our Dear Friends in Moscow — from Joshua Yaffa’s review in Foreign Affairs, Fareed Zakaria’s newsletter, Ben Smith’s recommendation in Semafor, and a thoughtful piece by Mark Dubbs on his Substack.

Honoured that "Our Dear Friends in Moscow" was recommended this week by @semafor.com Editor-in-Chief @semaforben.bsky.social — thank you!

Today, on Father's Day, I’m thinking of my father — as I have every day since he was jailed last July. He’s now in a penal colony in the Ryazan region. I deeply hope he will be released soon. (In the photo: my dad, Alexey Soldatov, in the 1980s — a promising nuclear physicist.)

I never thought our book - about our ex-friends and us - would end up a bestseller in Amazon's Historical Russia Biographies. Thought that category was reserved for the usual terrible Russians like Stalin or Lenin. But hey, we do live in interesting times. with Irina Borogan.

On our way to the Borris house festival to talk about “Our Dear Friends in Moscow” with the one and only Misha Glenny, with Irina Borogan. Very much looking forward to the discussion!

OUR DEAR FRIENDS IN MOSCOW is out in June 2025, available for pre-order. 9/9

Svetlana Babayeva. Crème de la crème of political journalism, a longtime member of Putin’s press pool, with stints in D.C. and London. She got too close to power—and was killed by friendly fire during special forces training, preparing for deployment to the Ukrainian front. 7/9

Evgeny Krutikov. Once an insightful and shrewd political journalist with a focus on war and the intelligence services, he later joined FSB disinformation operations—and now works directly with Russian intelligence. 6/9

Petr Akopov. A mild-mannered bookworm with a passion for North Korean stamps, he became one of the Kremlin’s most aggressive propagandists. He made global headlines after calling for a “final solution” to the Ukrainian question, just after the full-scale invasion began. 5/9

Zhenya Baranov. A brave war reporter who never hesitated to go to conflict zones and take personal risks. Today, he leads Rossotrudnichestvo’s operations in Belgrade — central to Russia’s soft-power and influence campaigns abroad. 4/9

Olga Lyubimova. Once a flamboyant party girl proud of her pedigree, her great granddad was a famous actor: a Moscow street named after him, Yesenin wrote a poem about his dog. Now she’s Putin’s Culture Minister, pushing pro-war narratives & Russian Orthodox exceptionalism. 3/9

Russian Culture Minister Lyubimova was chosen by Putin to represent Russia at Pope Francis's funeral - Kremlin. Olga Lyubimova (under all sorts of sanctions, including a travel ban) is one of the protagonists of our upcoming book OUR DEAR FRIENDS IN MOSCOW.

The galleys have arrived!