Brian Whitmore is Senior Russia Analyst at RFE/RL. He writes the Power Vertical blog, which focuses on Russian affairs, and hosts the Power Vertical Podcast. Prior to joining RFE/RL in 2007, Brian worked for eight years for the Boston Globe, first in the Globe’s Moscow bureau and later as Central and Eastern European correspondent based in Prague. Before this he was a political correspondent and columnist for The Moscow Times and its sister publication The St. Petersburg Times.

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Brian has a Bachelor’s Degree in Politics from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and an MA in Political Science from Villanova University. He has worked as a graduate lecturer in the Department of Government and International Studies at the University of South Carolina, and as a visiting lecturer in the History Faculties of Odessa State University (now Mechnikov National University) in Ukraine and St. Petersburg State University in Russia.