Hugh Barnes

Hugh Barnes (born 1963) is a journalist and specialist on Russian matters. Born in London, he was educated at Oxford and Cambridge universities. He covered the wars in Kosovo and Afghanistan for various newspapers in the UK and abroad. He has also been the director of the democracy and conflict programme at the Foreign Policy Centre and was Russia Editor at OpenDemocracy between December 2007 and March 2008. He has also taught on journalism courses at Kingston and Westminster University.

His publications include Special Effects (a novel), Understanding Iran (a report co-authored with Alex Bigham) and Gannibal: The Moor of Petersburg, a biography of Abram Gannibal, the African soldier-scholar at the tsar's court who was also the great-grandfather of Alexander Pushkin.