Aleksey Pushkov

Pushkov was born in 1954 to a family of a Soviet diplomats in the capital of China. His father, Konstantin Mikhailovich Pushkov (1921—2019) was an employee of the Consulate General of the USSR in Beijing. His mother, Margarita Vladimirovna Pushkova (1927–2007) was a translator and a teacher of the Chinese language. He studied at the Moscow special school #12 in his youth, graduating in 1972. He graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1976 with a degree in international relations before getting a job at the United Nations mission in Geneva. Between 1988 and 1991, he worked as the speechwriter for Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1991–1995, he was deputy editor-in-chief of the Moscow News Weekly in international affairs, editing the English, French, German and Spanish editions of the newspaper. From 2008 to 2011, Pushkov was the Director of the Institute of Contemporary International Studies at the Diplomatic Academy of Russia.[5] He was elected to the State Duma on 4 December 2011 on the United Russia Party list.

Pushkov and former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in 2018

Pushkov is a Professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He has the title of honoris causa from the Moscow University for the Humanities, the Russian-Armenian State University (Yerevan), and the Azerbaijan University of Languages.

Since 1998, Pushkov has been the lead author of the information and analytical program, Postscriptum, on TV channel TV Tsentr.[6]

In 2014, Pushkov suggested that Petro Poroshenko dismiss Andrii Deshchytsia, who was accused by Sergei Lavrov of calling Vladimir Putin a dickhead during the rioting near the Russian Embassy in Ukraine. He also said that if this issue is not resolved, Russia will have the right to cut down gas supplies to the neighboring nation.[7]

Pushkov is fluent in French and English.[8][9]

Pushkov has appeared on the state a state-run russian TV station, TV Centre. Main criticism boils down to open anti-Western propaganda, and unfounded claims about russian politicians and public figures. [10][11][12][13][14]

• Aleksey Pushkov on Twitter