Veteran foreign correspondent Jill Dougherty has spent decades on the front lines of U.S.–Russia relations—from her early days as a Voice of America broadcaster, to nearly a decade leading CNN’s Moscow bureau, to her latest work chronicling Russia’s evolution in her new book My Russia. In this wide-ranging conversation with Ia Meurmishvili, Dougherty reflects on a lifetime of reporting inside the Soviet Union and modern Russia, tracing her journey from a young American exchange student in Cold War Leningrad to a seasoned analyst watching Vladimir Putin dismantle the post-Soviet opening.
Dougherty shares candid insights on Putin’s early promises and steady crackdown on the press, Russia’s enduring imperial mindset toward Ukraine and Georgia, and the Kremlin’s use of frozen conflicts as leverage across the post-Soviet space. She also offers a sobering view of how militarization and repression are reshaping Russian society—and why the war in Ukraine may define not only Russia’s future, but that of its neighbors.