For more than 30 years Vladimir Pozner was the voice and face of Russia – first as a Soviet propagandist on Radio Moscow’s English service, then as a ubiquitous presenter and talking head in the Gorbachev era. At 81, he still hosts a popular weekly interview show on Russian television. While in the past he was presenting Russia to the world, now the traffic has gone into reverse, with a nine-part series to explain modern Britain to the Russian audience.
Having heard his unmistakeable American-accented English on Radio Moscow for so long, I was keen to find out how this Cold War survivor viewed today’s stand-off between Russia and the West. And how did a true believer in Soviet communism navigate the transition through perestroika and back to the more constricted media environment of Putin’s Russia?
