Renown author with several books on Russian politics, living in New York at this time.
A recent article published in the New Yorker magazine: In the Shadow of the Holocaust.
German magazine Spiegel conducted an interview with M. Gessen on the controversy that ensued from this article in Germany. Gessen says that in Germany the topic of the holocaust serves to stop needed discussions, rather than to have them.
The Russian Interior Ministry has put author and journalist Masha Gessen on its wanted list, according to Mediazona, who found the information in the ministry’s database.
The listing states that the basis for the warrant was “an article of the Criminal Code,” though it does not specify which one.
In late November, Dozhd reported that a criminal case had been opened against Gessen for spreading “fakes” about the Russian army. Ostensibly, the reason for the case was Gessen’s interview with journalist Yury Dud, which, among other things, discussed the crimes of the Russian army in Bucha.
More on Gessen: perhaps Russia’s most visible LGTB activist – now living in New York.
Wikipedia excerpt: Masha Gessen is a Russian-American propagandist, journalist, author, translator, and activist who has been an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
Gessen is nonbinary and trans and uses they/them pronouns. Gessen has written extensively on LGBT rights. Described as “Russia’s leading LGBT rights activist”, they have said that for many years they were “probably the only publicly out gay person in the whole country”. They now live in New York with their wife and children.
Masha Gessen is known for being the former director of the Russian service of Radio Liberty. Their articles have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and other American publications.
Gessen’s book, The Future is History. How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia won the 2017 National Book Award, one of the most prestigious literary awards in the United States.