Russia

My Russia reveals CNN’s Jill Dougherty’s transformative journey from a Cold War-era obsession with Russia to witnessing firsthand the rise of Vladimir Putin and the unraveling of a nation she grew to love

At the height of the Cold War, as a high school freshman, CNN’s Jill Dougherty developed an obsession with Russia. Over the next half-century, she studied in Leningrad, traveled across the Soviet Union, lived in Moscow, and reported on the presidencies of Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and Vladimir Putin. Jill’s life, and Putin’s, intersected. They studied at the same Russian university; Jill was named CNN Moscow Bureau Chief just as Putin began his rise to power. She knew he was a former KGB officer, but she also believed he was an economic reformer. As Putin tightened his grip on the media, she changed her mind. In 2022, reporting from Moscow as Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, she was convinced the leader with whom she once had sympathized was a tyrant threatening to destroy a country she had come to love.

My Russia charts Russia’s evolution through the eyes of an American with rare insight into Russia, its people, and its leaders.

Jill Dougherty was a CNN Correspondent for over thirty years and is now a CNN on-air Contributor, appearing frequently to provide reporting and analysis on Russia and related issues. She served as CNN Moscow Bureau Chief for nine years and held other posts at CNN including White House Correspondent, US Affairs Editor, Managing Editor for the Asia/Pacific Region, and Foreign Affairs Correspondent covering the US State Department.

She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the World Affairs Council, and the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute Advisory Council, where she is a Global Fellow. She teaches at Georgetown University’s Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies and has pursued research on Russia and the media as a fellow at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School and at the International Centre for Defence and Security in Estonia. She writes regularly for CNN.com, and her work has been published in The Atlantic, Politico, the Washington Post, and elsewhere. She lives in Washington, DC and speaks fluent Russian.