Journalist Who Left Russia, Gessen, Wins Pulitzer While Under Arrest Warrant in Moscow

New York. Journalist Masha Gessen, who has an arrest warrant issued against her in Russia, has won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. She was awarded for a collection of essays published in The New York Times.

According to the prize organisers, Gessen was honoured for “a perceptive collection of essays about the rise of authoritarian regimes, grounded in historical fact and personal experience, helping to explore timely themes of oppression, belonging and exile.”

Gessen previously worked for Russian magazines Bolshoi Gorod, Snob, and Vokrug Sveta, and also served as director of the Russian service of Radio Liberty (designated as a foreign agent and undesirable organisation in Russia). She has been living and working in the United States since 2013. In December 2023, Moscow’s Basmanny Court ordered her arrest in absentia on charges of spreading deliberately false information about the Russian army.