During the second week of the fellowship, Anna Koshman began her tour of the U.S. by visiting regional media associations and publishing houses with a group of Russian independent publishers. In Iowa, the grouped visited the Iowa Newspaper Association and also met with the Stanley Foundation, where the publishers had a chance to learn more about Stanley Foundation’s work as well as engage its staff, members of the local media and academics in a dialogue on the U.S. foreign policy agenda and Presidential elections.
On October 29th, upon her return from Chicago, Anna spoke at the National Endowment for Democracy/Center for International Media Assistance (NED/CIMA). Anna, along with three other panelists, addressed the state of independent media in Russia today and highlighted the role that independent regional media is playing in forming the civil society fabric that has been absent from Russia for so long. Her co-panelists included Andrei Piontokovsky of the Hudson Institute and Vladimir Kara-Murza of RtVi, who addressed the alarming trend that independent media has undergone in Russia over the last eight years. Nadia Diuk, the Senior Director of the Russia & Eurasia Program at NED, moderated the session. A video recording of the event can be found here.
