In this Wavemaker Conversation with Michael Schulder, journalist Julia Ioffe reveals little-known aspects of Putin’s life and rule that are of great consequence. The conversation also covers Julia’s insights on US-Russia relations, national security, and her personal journey, which began as a child in Russia before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
About Julia Ioffe:
34 years ago, Julia Ioffe and her family arrived in the U.S. as refugees from the former Soviet Union, having fled their homeland upon rumors of a planned pogrom against the Jews of Moscow. Julia was only seven.
Today, Julia Ioffe, the refugee –- a happy American accident, as she has called her life — has become a go-to journalist for her singular insights on Vladimir Putin and Russia, and her reporting on the war in Ukraine, the Middle East, U.S. national security and domestic politics.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, PBS’s Frontline turned to Ioffe as a central voice in its documentary Putin’s Road To War. So did Late Night with Stephen Colbert.
Ioffe graduated from Princeton, and later received a Fulbright Scholarship to return to Russia, where she worked as a Moscow correspondent for Foreign Policy magazine and The New Yorker and, among other things, introduced American readers to a young Russian opposition figure she had gotten to know well — Alexey Navalny. Back in the U.S., she became a senior editor at The New Republic, and a featured reporter at The Atlantic. In 2021, she joined the new platform Puck.news as a founding partner and Washington correspondent.