Peter Pomerantsev


Peter Pomerantsev is a Soviet-born British journalist, author and TV producer. His father is the writer and broadcaster Igor Pomerantsev. He is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Institute of Global Affairs at the London School of Economics, where he co-directs the Arena program. He is also an Associate Editor at Coda Story, a position he has held since at least 2015.

Biography

Pomerantsev was born in 1977. In 1978, he moved with his parents to West Germany, after his father, broadcaster and poet Igor Pomerantsev, was arrested by the KGB for proliferating anti-Soviet literature. They later moved to Munich and then London where Igor Pomerantsev worked for the BBC World Service. Pomerantsev’s mother, Liana Pomerantsev, is a documentary producer. Her credits include Gulag, which won the Grierson Award for Best British Documentary; The Beslan Siege, which won Prix Italia; and The Train, which won a BAFTA.
Pomerantsev attended Westminster School in London and the European School in Munich. He studied English Literature and German at the University of Edinburgh. After university he moved to Russia in 2001. He attended the Higher Courses for Script Writers and Film Directors in Moscow. He "jumped jobs" between think tanks and was a consultant on European Union projects until he went to film school.

Television work

Pomerantsev lived largely in Moscow between 2001 and 2010, working in TV. Between 2006 and 2010, following a stint in London, he worked on programs broadcast on Russian entertainment channel TNT. His credits included Creative Producer on ‘Привет Пока', the Russian version of the Sony format ‘Hello-Goodbye’. Part of the time he was employed at production company ‘Potemkin Productions’.

Journalism

Starting in 2011 Pomerantsev wrote about Russia, with articles in Newsweek, The Atlantic Monthly and other magazines. He coined the term "post-modern dictatorship" to describe Vladimir Putin's regime.
Pomerantsev’s memoir of his time in Russia, Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: Adventures in Modern Russia, was released by Faber and Faber in the UK in 2015 and Public Affairs in the US in 2014. It has since been translated into over a dozen languages. In the book Pomerantsev provides insight into how the Russian state apparatus uses "black PR" to manipulate truth, while the Russian public — accustomed to the lies of the Soviet regime — remain cynical and assume that all of "Kremlin's reality is scripted". The New York Times noted the "book is written in different genres, a sort of intellectual docudrama. Mr. Pomerantsev concedes that some of the dialogue he quotes is from memory."
Pomerantsev was project chair for the Information Warfare Initiative of the Center for European Policy Analysis. He also led the Beyond Propaganda programme within the Legatum Institute's Transitions Forum, where he was a Senior Fellow. Pomerantsev has been at the fellow of the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna.
Pomerantsev has given testimony on the subject of information warfare and media development to the US Congress Foreign Affairs Committee, US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and the UK Parliament Defence Committee.

Views and opinions

Post-modern politics

In a short animated film on BBC Newsnight, Pomerantsev introduced the idea of the "post-modern politician". He argued: "President Trump and President Putin share a disdain for facts - and that this is part of their appeal". He developed related themes in pieces for Granta and the Financial Times, where he argued that fact-driven political discourse is connected to the idea of a future. Pomerantsev wrote about Putin’s information guru Vladislav Surkov, ‘the hidden author of Putinism’.

Information warfare and propaganda

In a 2014 essay for The Atlantic, ‘The Menace on Unreality” on the Kremlin’s Hall of Mirrors, Pomerantsev explored how information warfare has changed in the 21st century. He has also contributed to think tank studies about propaganda and information war, and edited a series of studies on the subject, including subjects ranging from ISIS’ use of social media to media literacy.

Investigation into suicide of Ruslana Korshunova

Pomerantsev investigated the suicide of Russian model Ruslana Korshunova for a documentary. He revealed that her death was linked to the Rose of the World. The cult-like group's "training sessions" are modeled after the defunct Lifespring where participants go through grueling physical and mental sessions. Korshunova lost weight and became aggressive, her friends reported after months of training. She then went to New York City, looking for work. On 28 June 2008, She jumped from the balcony of her apartment and died instantly. No signs of a struggle were found in her apartment and her death was ruled as a suicide. She was buried at Khovanskoye Cemetery in Moscow.

Criticism

In a May 17, 2015 post at Pando.com, Mark Ames, a former resident of Moscow and editor of the city's now-defunct English-language paper Exile and former Russia Today reporter, questioned whether Pomerantsev was transparent with his motives on Russia. He condemns Pomerantsev for associating with colleagues with anti-Putin positions; including Legatum's Chris Chandler, Jeffrey Gedmin, Anne Applebaum, Ben Judah, and Bill Browder. Writing in Forbes magazine, Melik Kaylan responded to the criticisms:
‘The attacks suffer from egregious factual inaccuracies. Pomerantsev is not nor has ever been a 'lobbyist' for anyone. To say this about Pomerantsev is like saying Orwell was a paid lobbyist against totalitarian systems.

Awards

On Start the Week with Andrew Marr, BBC Radio 4
On This American Life, PBS