World Affairs Council of Central Illinois (WACCI) :Ghosts of Glasnost: A Veteran Journalist Revisits the Collapse of the USSR for clues to the Rise of Putin's Russia

Description

The World Affairs Council of Central Illinois (WACCI) announces its program Ghosts of Glasnost: A Veteran Journalist Revisits the Collapse of the USSR for clues to the Rise of Putin's Russia. The speaker will be Jeffrey Trimble, an international journalist, editor, and media manager for more than 40 years including two decades in U.S. international broadcasting, where his posts included Acting President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.  We will look back to see what we might learn from "The Ghosts of Glasnost." The setting: It was a young journalist’s dream assignment: Moscow, 1986-1991, the turbulent final five years of the Soviet Union, as the largest country in the world collapsed. As bureau chief for U.S. News & World Report magazine, Jeff documented the rise and fall of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his ambitious but ultimately failed attempts to reform and modernize the USSR. In his talk, Trimble will revisit those tumultuous years and his reporting from that time for clues – missed or not fully appreciated in the rush of fast-paced developments and pressing deadlines – about the future Russia that would emerge from the ashes of the Soviet Union and the chaotic tenure of Boris Yelstin: a revanchist, tightly controlled authoritarian state, now more than two decades under the iron rule of ex-KGB agent Vladimir Putin.