James Brooke
James Brooke is the Russia/CIS bureau chief for Voice of America. A lifelong journalist, he covered West Africa, Brazil, the American Rocky Mountain States, Canada, and Japan/Korea for The New York Times. A resident of Moscow since 2006, he was first Bloomberg bureau chief for the region. In 2010, he joined VOA. In addition to writing Russia Watch, his weekly blog, he also does video, radio and web reports from Russia and the former USSR.

All posts by James Brooke

Reality Check: Russian vs American record in Afghanistan

Posted May 9th, 2011 at 3:07 am (UTC+0)
13 comments

Russia’s foreign ministry has just issued a new statement lecturing the U.S.-led coalition “to take additional steps” to reduce civilian casualties in Afghanistan. Presumably, in this post-Osama Bin Laden era, Moscow is trying ingratiate itself with Afghan public opinion, and ultimately, the Taliban. If so, then it’s time for some reality checks: Reality Check 1: […]

Posted in Uncategorized

A Tale of Two Wars: United States in Afghanistan and Russia in the Caucasus

Posted May 4th, 2011 at 9:39 pm (UTC+0)
2 comments

Oddly, the death tolls in both wars stand at 440. In Afghanistan, 440 American soldiers were killed by hostile action last year. In Russia’s Caucasus, 440 Russian police and soldiers were killed by Islamic insurgents last year. The death of Osama bin Laden has many Americans thinking: let’s declare victory, crank up the brass bands, […]

Posted in Uncategorized

Public Enemy No. 1 in Belarus: A Diplomat turned Democrat

Posted April 29th, 2011 at 9:34 am (UTC+0)
1 comment

When I last talked to Andrei Sannikov, on the night of Dec. 19, he was partly leading, partly being swept along, by a river of Belarussians who filled the largest avenue in Minsk, protesting yet another fraudulent presidential election. Dressed in a business suit and tie, speaking English polished during a five year diplomatic stint […]

Posted in Uncategorized

Belarus’ Lukashenko and his Mini-me: Biographer Needed

Posted April 22nd, 2011 at 5:58 pm (UTC+0)
2 comments

Calling all political biographers: We have here on the eastern edge of Europe a quirky modern dictator in desperate need of a world-class writer to tell his tale. Alexander Lukashenko, the long running ruler of Belarus, never ceases to surprise. For starters, there is his 6-year-old son, Nikolai. The president dresses him up in various […]

Posted in Uncategorized

Belarus: Bombing while Economy Burns

Posted April 18th, 2011 at 6:05 am (UTC+0)
1 comment

When a massive bomb goes off in a police state, one can only ask: where were the police? Belarus is the Cuba of Central Europe — a police state. Type “List of countries by size of police forces” into Wikipedia and you will find that Belarus is the champion, with 1,442 policemen for every 100,000 […]

Posted in Uncategorized

Yuri Gagarin: When the Soviets Beat the Americans

Posted April 13th, 2011 at 3:10 pm (UTC+0)
2 comments

I remember standing in a field in southern France one evening in the summer of 1962. My father watched a blinking red light slowly arcing across the night sky. “That,” he said pointing. “That is a sputnik.” It could well have been the night flight from Paris to Algiers. But the uneasiness in his voice […]

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Russia’s Corruption Fighter — Censored?

Posted April 6th, 2011 at 3:59 pm (UTC+0)
12 comments

Do a Google search on “Kadyrov cars,” or “Kadyrov palace,” or “Kadyrov racehorse.” Russians often wonder what happens to the billions of rubles the Kremlin pours into Chechnya to prop up Ramzan Kadyrov, the chief of the long rebellious republic. Five minutes on Google gives a juicy hint. Russia is riding the rocket of some […]

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From Chernobyl to Fukushima: Nuclear Safety?

Posted March 31st, 2011 at 6:32 pm (UTC+0)
4 comments

Soldiers long ago shot the dogs and cats. Today, the only sound on Lenin Avenue is a chill wind blowing dead leaves. In the summer, thick vegetation obscures six-story apartment blocks, once homes for the city’s 50,000 residents. Once a model Soviet community built for Chernobyl’s nuclear power station, Pripyat now looks like a post […]

Posted in Uncategorized

Libya abstention – Kremlin’s post imperial foreign policy?

Posted March 23rd, 2011 at 5:56 pm (UTC+0)
3 comments

The Soviet Union vetoed. Russia abstains. Is Russia’s U.N. vote on Libya part of a wider, post-Imperial foreign policy in the Kremlin? That is the question Moscow is debating as Russians watch from the sidelines as needle-nosed Western jets bomb military targets in Libya, once a Soviet ally. Diplomats schooled in Soviet ways would have […]

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Saint Patrick: Subversive to Moscow?

Posted March 15th, 2011 at 4:31 pm (UTC+0)
2 comments

For the first time in almost two decades, Moscow authorities will not allow a Saint Patrick’s Day Parade. Every year, since 1992, the Irish community has led a street parade through the center of Moscow. Increasingly popular with Muscovites, the parade draws thousands of Russian revelers, many with their hair dyed green. But this year, […]

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About

About

James Brooke is VOA Moscow bureau chief, covering Russia and the former USSR. With The New York Times, he worked as a foreign correspondent in Africa, Latin America, Canada and Japan/Koreas. He studied Russian in college during the Brezhnev years, first visited Moscow as a reporter during the final months of Gorbachev, and then came back for reporting forays during the Yeltsin and early Putin years. In 2006, he moved to Moscow to report for Bloomberg. He joined VOA in Moscow in 2010. Follow Jim on Twitter @VOA_Moscow.

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