Gessen Resigns As RFE/RL Russian Service Director

Masha Gessen, director of the Russian-language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) for the past seven months, today announced her resignation from the position to begin work on a new book.

“Masha Gessen is an award-winning journalist who will continue to bring her insight, energy and activism to journalism — in the interest of civil society in Russia,” said RFE/RL Acting President and CEO Kevin Klose.

Gessen, author of the political biography of Vladimir Putin, “The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin” (Riverhead Press, 2012), is a 2013 winner of the 4th annual Media for Liberty award for “The Wrath of Putin,” published in Vanity Fair magazine last year.

Gessen also lectures on human rights and is a regular contributor to The New York Times’ “Latitude” blog.

Klose said that in the future, the Russian Service will be coordinated by senior editors in Prague, the network’s operations center, and Moscow, where the service recently installed a state-of-the-art news bureau.