Lucian Kim
Lucian Kim is NPR's international correspondent based in Moscow. He has been reporting on Europe and the former Soviet Union for the past two decades.
Before joining NPR in 2016, Kim was based in Berlin, where he was a regular contributor to Slate and Reuters. As one of the first foreign correspondents in Crimea when Russian troops arrived, Kim covered the 2014 Ukraine conflict for news organizations such as BuzzFeed and Newsweek.
Kim first moved to Moscow in 2003, becoming the business editor and a columnist for the Moscow Times. He later covered energy giant Gazprom and the Russian government for Bloomberg News.
Kim started his career in 1996 after receiving a Fulbright grant for young journalists in Berlin. There he worked as a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor and the Boston Globe, reporting from central Europe, the Balkans, Afghanistan, and North Korea.
He has twice been the alternate for the Council on Foreign Relations' Edward R. Murrow Fellowship.
Kim was born and raised in Charleston, Illinois. He earned a bachelor's degree in geography and foreign languages from Clark University, studied journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, and graduated with a master's degree in nationalism studies from Central European University in Budapest.
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A bounty program on U.S. soldiers would constitute a "massive escalation" in Moscow's testy relations with Washington, says one Russia expert. A Russian lawmaker asks: "What would we get out of this?"
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"It is very important to him to have this popular endorsement, even if it is a farce, even if it is a travesty of popular will," analyst Masha Lipman says of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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Russia's capital, the epicenter of the country's coronavirus pandemic, is lifting restrictions as the Kremlin prepares for a massive military parade and a referendum on term limits.
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More than 20,000 tons spilled in a remote Arctic region, prompting Russian President Vladimir Putin to declare a state of emergency. The company says thawing permafrost may have caused the spill.
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"America used to be a beacon of freedom, liberty and anti-corruption efforts. Now a lot of Ukrainians feel like ... we are by ourselves," says a Ukrainian political commentator.
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Even after two decades in power, Russia's leader enjoys approval ratings around 70%. Supporters say he has returned the country to greatness. But a poll says over half of young adults want to leave.
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"U.S. military aid represents a physical manifestation of American support, which is essential," retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges tells NPR. The U.S. has given $1.5 billion in such aid in the past 5 years.
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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will have his first meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Paris, in an effort to end a five-year conflict in eastern Ukraine that has cost 13,000 lives.
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"Thank God nobody is accusing us anymore of interfering in U.S. elections," Russian President Vladimir Putin said at an investment conference last week. "Now they're accusing Ukraine."
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Alexei Navalny, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, runs an anti-corruption organization that Russian authorities accuse of being a "foreign agent." This week, he hit back.