usfsa international assignments

This is a site about the books and other writing by James Rodgers, author of Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia From Lenin to Putin ( new edition 2023 ; first published July 2020); Headlines from the Holy Land (2015 and 2017); No Road Home: Fighting for Land and Faith in Gaza (2013); Reporting Conflict (2012). My work looks at how stories of international affairs, especially armed conflict, are told to the world.

I am an author and journalist. During two decades of covering international news, I reported on the end of the Soviet Union; the wars in Chechnya; the coming to power of Vladimir Putin; 9/11; the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the 2003 war in Iraq; Russia’s war with Georgia in 2008. I completed correspondent postings for the BBC in Moscow, Brussels, and Gaza. I now teach in the Journalism Department at City, University of London.

Now Out: Assignment Moscow ‘Beautifully written, fascinating throughout’

MY NEW BOOK , Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia from Lenin to Putin has now been published in the U.S. and the U.K.

You can order copies, and read more about the book, here for the U.K, edition ( here for the U.S. edition).

These are the reviews so far

“Reporting from Russia has never been easy; Rodgers vividly captures the changing fortunes of Moscow correspondents over the past hundred years, as they penetrated the mysteries of life in Russia and brought them to our newspapers and screens. Some were duped, some were fellow-travellers or spies; most battled against censors and blank-faced politicians; all have helped to shape our understanding of the world’s biggest country.” –  Angus Roxburgh, former Moscow correspondent for the BBC, Sunday Times and Economist

“Writing about journalism in Russia since the revolution, James Rodgers rightly emphasises that to understand Russia you have to talk to people of all kinds. But he argues that even correspondents who knew the language and the history found it hard to report dispassionately because of official obstruction and their own emotional involvement.” –  Rodric Braithwaite

“A highly original, engrossing and accessible book, Assignment Moscow stands out among journalistic accounts of Russia for its subtlety, humility and historic scope. It tells the story of British and American journalists who aimed to throw light on Russia from Lenin to Putin, and in the process illuminated the West itself.” –  Arkady Ostrovsky, Author of The Invention of Russia: The Rise of Putin and the age of Fake News, Winner of the 2016 Orwell Prize

“It is hard to believe that in the torrent of books published on Russia each year, that one could come along as original and valuable as Assignment Moscow. One comes to appreciate the service of our reporting men and women in Moscow. For all their fallibilities, without their dedication, we wouldn’t have half the understanding of Russia that we have today, imperfect as it will always be. We therefore owe them – and especially Rodgers as journalist, teacher, analyst and cataloguer – a huge debt.” –  James Nixey, Chatham House

I was also delighted to get this endorsement on Twitter from Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History at the University of Oxford, and author of The Silk Roads and The New Silk Roads .

Beautifully written, fascinating throughout – and very timely. Happy publication day ⁦ @jmacrodgers ⁩ ! #AssignmentMoscow pic.twitter.com/WY4xlYL6ZR — Peter Frankopan (@peterfrankopan) July 23, 2020

I will be talking about the book at a number of events planned for September onwards. I will share details here when they are available.

I am very happy to talk at book festivals, to universities, think tanks, conferences etc. Please get in touch if you are interested–contact details below, or via the publisher, I.B. Tauris, part of Bloomsbury .

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Espionage trial of U.S. reporter Gershkovich gets underway in Russia

June 26 (UPI) -- The Russian trial of U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich on spying charges opened Wednesday in Yekaterinburg, 1,000 miles east of Moscow, 14 months after he was arrested while on a reporting assignment for the Wall Street Journal.

He is accused of gathering classified information for the CIA on a Russian tank manufacturer near Yekaterinburg -- allegations the WSJ and the White House strongly reject -- and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if, as expected, he is convicted. Advertisement

The trial is being held behind closed doors but journalists allowed in to the Sverdlovsk Regional Courthouse before the proceeding got underway reported the 32-year-old appeared to be in good spirits.

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A Federal Security Service indictment alleges he was acting "under instructions from the CIA" and "using painstaking conspiratorial methods," to collect secret information" about defense contractor Uralvagonzavod in Yekaterinburg.

The trial which is expected to take several months was later adjourned through Aug. 13 ., according to court officials. Advertisement

Only his defense lawyers are permitted in court for the trial and he has had limited consular access while in detention.

Deborah Ball, deputy world coverage chief of the WSJ which claims the Kremlin is "stockpiling Americans" as currency to exchange for Russians imprisoned in the West, condemned the trial as a sham.

"This is a bogus process. It's outrageous and outlandish. Evan will not enjoy any of the due process that we would expect in any Western court. It will be closed door. It will be secret," Ball said. "Russia's acquittal rate is less than 1%. We don't expect any chance of him being acquitted."

The Guardian's Russia reporter Pjotr Sauer who is a friend of Gershkovich, told CNN, "Evan is just an honest journalist," and emphasized that Russian authorities have not presented any evidence against him.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Fox News host Tucker Carlson in an interview aired in February that he would be open to a prisoner swap that could include releasing Gershkovich.

He said "special services are in contact with one another" and that he believed "an agreement can be reached."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov last week confirmed that "such interaction does exist" but that Moscow would not be commenting further due to the delicacy of the negotiations. Advertisement

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Closed-door espionage trial of U.S. journalist kicks off in Russia

Evan Gershkovich, who the U.S. says is wrongfully detained, was arrested on a reporting trip over a year ago in Russia and faces 20 years in prison if convicted.

The closed-door trial of American journalist Evan Gershkovich began in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on Wednesday, 15 months after he was arrested and charged with espionage while on a reporting trip.

The case marks the first time since the Cold War that an American journalist has been put on trial on accusations of espionage in Russia. Gershkovich appeared calm in court Wednesday, smiling and nodding at colleagues who had traveled to Yekaterinburg — almost 900 miles east of Moscow — to report on the opening moments of the trial. Gershkovich’s head had been shaved, as is typical for prisoners in the Russian penitentiary system.

Russian prosecutors announced earlier this month that they had finalized an indictment and had “established and documented” that Gershkovich had “collected secret information” about the Uralvagonzavod military factory in the Yekaterinburg region in Russia while “on assignment from the CIA.” Following Wednesday’s hearing, court prosecutor Mikhail Ozdoev made a brief statement, alleging that Gershkovich had “performed illegal actions in secret.”

While Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that Gershkovich was caught “red-handed,” no evidence has ever been made public.

Gershkovich, the White House and his employer, the Wall Street Journal, have deemed the charges baseless. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

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“Evan has never been employed by the United States government. Evan is not a spy. Journalism is not a crime, and Evan should never have been tried in the first place,” said John Kirby, the national security spokesman for the White House.

Gershkovich, 32, who had worked as an accredited journalist in Russia for six years, has been in pretrial detention at the Lefortovo prison in Moscow since his arrest in March 2023.

His case was transferred this month to a court in Yekaterinburg, where Gershkovich was initially arrested, and he was moved to a detention center in the city. As is typical for espionage cases in Russia, the trial will remain closed to the public and is expected to last several months.

Last year, the State Department declared Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who was arrested in 2018 on similar charges, to be wrongfully detained, a designation that commits the federal government to work for their release. The Kremlin has signaled that it is open to the possibility of trading Gershkovich for high-value Russian nationals jailed abroad once a verdict is delivered.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told American right-wing talk show host Tucker Carlson in February during his first interview with a Western media figure since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine that “an agreement can be reached” with the United States to free Gershkovich. During the interview, Putin indicated that he wanted to secure the release of Vadim Krasikov, an alleged Russian intelligence agent convicted of the murder of a Chechen dissident in Berlin in 2019.

When again pressed on the subject during an interview with international reporters in April, Putin said that U.S. and Russian authorities continued to “maintain contacts on this issue.”

“I know that the U.S. administration is taking energetic steps to secure his release. It’s true. Such issues are not decided by mass media, they prefer a discreet, calm and professional approach and dialogue between security services,” he said. “And they certainly should be decided on the basis of reciprocity.”

U.S. Embassy officials said that they were given brief access to Gershkovich ahead of the proceedings and were at the court.

“Russian authorities have failed to provide any evidence supporting the charges against him, failed to justify his continued detention, and failed to explain why Evan’s work as a journalist constitutes a crime,” the embassy statement said after the hearing. “His case is not about evidence, procedural norms, or the rule of law. It is about the Kremlin using American citizens to achieve its political objectives. Russia should stop using individuals like Evan Gershkovich or Paul Whelan as bargaining chips.”

In response, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday that the U.S. government’s “attempts to politicize” the case were “counterproductive,” dismissing a question about a potential prisoner exchange.

“We recently emphasized more than once … that the U.S. administration, which is showing such interest and such active involvement in his fate, should seriously consider the signals that they in Washington have received via relevant channels,” Ryabkov said. “They should not brush them aside as they normally do, but think about the essence of these signals.”

Kremlin spokesman Peskov, meanwhile, declined to comment on the trial and echoed Putin’s comments on potential prisoner swap negotiations.

“No, we can’t talk about any signals at the moment. We can only repeat that this topic likes silence,” he told reporters at a daily briefing. “We know that this topic is very high-profile in the United States, but it is not so high-profile inside our country. The investigation is underway, the trial is underway, and we must wait for the verdict to be delivered.”

After Wednesday’s hearing, Gershkovich’s family released a statement describing the period since their son’s arrest as “extraordinarily painful for Evan and family.” Last year, Gershkovich’s parents — Soviet-born emigrants to the United States — traveled to Russia to attend two of their son’s appeals.

“We miss our son and just want him home,” read the statement. “We’re deeply disappointed that he will have to endure further attempts to discredit him.”

In her own statement ahead of Wednesday’s trial, Wall Street Journal editor in chief Emma Tucker described the case as “a travesty of justice that already has gone on for far too long.”

“When his case comes before a judge this week, it will not be a trial as we understand it, with a presumption of innocence and a search for the truth,” she wrote. “It will be held in secret. No evidence has been unveiled. And we already know the conclusion: This bogus accusation of espionage will inevitably lead to a bogus conviction for an innocent man who would then face up to 20 years in prison for simply doing his job. And an excellent job he was doing, at that.”

Gershkovich’s next hearing is set for Aug. 13.

Tyler Page contributed to this report.

U.S. Figure Skating Announces 2022-23 Qualifying Season

U.S. Figure Skating announced today the dates and locations of the 2022-23 domestic competition season, including the 2023 National Qualifying Season for the 2023 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

U.S. Figure Skating announced today the dates and locations of the 2022-23 domestic competition season, including the 2023 National Qualifying Season for the 2023 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Additional details for the events outlined below will be available on usfigureskating.org .

2022 U.S. Collegiate Championships

The 2022 U.S. Collegiate Figure Skating Championships & Invitational will take place July 22-24, 2022, in Richfield, Minnesota, hosted by the St. Paul FSC.

Beginning in 2022, the U.S. Collegiate Invitational nonqualifying competition will be held in conjunction with the U.S. Collegiate Figure Skating Championships. This new nonqualifying event expands the opportunity for collegiate skaters in a variety of events similar to those offered within the intercollegiate structure. Participants must meet the requirements for their desired event level and be enrolled in an accredited college or university to participate.

Registration for the 2022 U.S. Collegiate Championships & Invitational will open on May 15. For more information, click here .

2023 U.S. Figure Skating Qualifying Season

For the 2022-23 season, the Competitions Committee has proposed a National Qualifying Season combining the standalone October qualifying competitions, Regional (singles) and Sectional (pairs and ice dance) Challenges into approved series competitions from mid-July to early October. Skaters will advance to the Sectional Singles, U.S. Pairs and U.S. Ice Dance Finals in November 2022 and culminating with the 2023 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships and National Development Camp in January 2023.

The U.S. Figure Skating National Qualifying Series (NQS) was approved by the 2018 Governing Council and implemented in the summer of 2019. The NQS is a series of competitions hosted individually by member clubs nationwide, in which athletes enter and earn a score. They will earn a placement in the individual competition they enter, an overall ranking in their level and a regional (singles) and sectional ranking. Click here to access approved NQS competitions.

2023 U.S. Synchronized Skating Qualifying Season

U.S. Figure Skating also announced the dates and locations for the 2023 U.S. Synchronized Skating Qualifying Season. The 2023 U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships will be announced at a later date. Additional details, including registration and housing, will be provided in July.

2023 U.S. Adult Qualifying Season

The 2023 U.S. Adult Figure Skating Championships presented by Prevagen will take place April 12 – 15, 2023, in Salt Lake City. More information on registering for the 2023 U.S. Adult Qualifying Season will be available later this fall.

All dates and locations are subject to change. Please send any questions to [email protected] .

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