Julia Ioffe

Julia Ioffe (Russian: Юлия Иоффе) (born 1982) is a Russian-American journalist and blogger, whose writings have been published by The Columbia Journalism Review, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Foreign Policy, Forbes, The New Republic, and Russia!.

Early life and education

Ioffe was born in Moscow, and is of Russian-Jewish descent.^[1][2] She emigrated to the United States in 1990,^[3] at the age of 7,^[4] settling in Columbia, Maryland.^[5][6] Ioffe attended Princeton University and earned her degree in history, specializing in Soviet history.^[3]

Career

Ioffe began her career as a fact checker for The New Yorker, before moving to Columbia Journalism School's Knight Foundation Case Studies Initiative.^[3] She later won a Fulbright Scholarship to return to Russia,^[7] and worked as the Moscow correspondent for The New Yorker and Foreign Policy. In 2012 she became a senior editor for The New Republic in Washington D.C.^[8][9]

Ioffe's work is often critical of Russian president Vladimir Putin^[10] and Moscow ex-mayor Yuri Luzhkov.^[7] She has written of receiving angry emails and letters from Russians, upset over her coverage of the country.^[2] She has also written about the Russian state-funded news network RT, which she has described as a Kremlin mouthpiece.^[11] Despite her own often-critical approach to Russian politics, Ioffe described Kremlin critic Luke Harding, The Guardian Moscow correspondent deported from Russia in 2011, as a "renegade" with "a reputation for playing with fire—perhaps foolishly".^[12] Harding described this response as being "mean-spirited".^[13]

Ioffe caused a minor controversy in August 2013 when she appeared on MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell and suggested that Vladimir Putin had only limited control over the situation surrounding Edward Snowden's asylum application. O'Donnell responded, "We're getting absurd now," and a heated exchange on Putin's control of the media ensued.^[14] Ioffe responded in an article in The New Republic, accusing O'Donnell of "mansplaining".^[15] Several media publications have praised or defended Ioffe's response, including Esquire,^[16] The Atlantic,^[17] and the Huffington Post, including current Huffington Post contributor Alyona Minkovski,^[18] whom Ioffe has previously been critical of.^[11]

Ioffe expressed opposition to an American boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, based on the Russian LGBT propaganda law, arguing that a boycott would not aid the cause of gay rights in Russia. As a result, openly gay actor Harvey Fierstein criticized her as "smug".^[19]

In December 2013, The New Republic revealed that Ioffe's story about contracting whooping cough, which she blamed partly on Jenny McCarthy, was the magazine's most read story of 2013.^[20]

Ioffe was part of a group of access journalists who met privately with President Barack Obama to shore up support for his counterterrorism strategy in combating ISIS before an address to the nation.^[21]

In December 2014, Ioffe was one of several staff members at The New Republic to resign in protest against owner Chris Hughes's planned changes at the magazine.^[22][23] The following month, she joined The New York Times Magazine as a contributor.^[24]

References

External links

• Personal Website
• Biography at Russia! Magazine
• Appearances on C-SPAN