Our Dear Friends in Moscow or What Happened to Moscow’s Public Intellectuals in Putin’s Russia?

A book discussion with Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan
In their new book, Our Dear Friends in Moscow: The Inside Story of a Broken Generation (2025), investigative journalists Borogan and Soldatov tell the grippling story of a group of young reporters, who came of age in the years leading to the rise of Putin. The book is about the choices that that their friends and colleagues in Moscow ended up making – to resist or to compromise, to go into exile or to stay.

Solo concert by Vikram Rajan
18.00    Doors open.

18.30    Welcome by Dessy Gavrilova, Music & Politics series curator, and Clemena Antonova, The World in Pieces Program, IWM

Piano concert by Vikram Rajan
Rachmaninov: Prelude in D-major Op.23 nr.4
Rachmaninov: Prelude in G-major Op.32 nr.5
Scriabin: Sonata nr.2, Op.19

19.00    Discussion with Irina Borogan and Andrei Soldatov followed by Q&A.
Moderation: Mirjana Tomić, Fjum/ Pressclub Concordia

20.00    Drinks, snacks, and inspiring conversations.
 
Andrej Soldatov
is a Russian investigative journalist in exile, who is co-founder and editor of Agentura.ru, a watchdog that monitors the activities of the Russian secret services. He is co-author, with Irina Borogan, of The New Nobility (2010), The Red Web (2015), and The Compatriots (2019). Soldatov has been on Russia’s wanted list since 2022.

Irina Borogan
is a Russian investigative journalist in exile and co-founder and editor of Agentura.ru. Borogan has chronicled the Kremlin’s campaign to take control of civil society and strengthen the government’s security powers under the pretext of fighting extremism. She is co-author, with Andrei Soldatov, of The New Nobility (2010), The Red Web (2015), and The Compatriots (2019).

Vikram Rajan
is a concert pianist who has received his classical piano education in the USA and in Austria. He has won a number of prestigious international prizes. He has performed in Austria, the USA, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and France.

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