The story of western correspondents in Russia is the story of Russia's attitude to the west—now, since the start of the war in Ukraine, correspondents in the Russian capital are facing the biggest challenges in living memory: trying to work as journalists at a time when failing to parrot the Kremlin's propaganda could land you in jail for up to 15 years.

James Rodgers' book, Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia from Lenin to Putin, is a history of western correspondents' work in Russia from the revolutions of 1917 right up the Putin presidency—reporting on a country known to few outsiders, and now once again cut off from the West because of sanctions.

James, whose own first assignment to Moscow was in 1991, and who worked there for long periods in the 1990s and 2000s for both Reuters Television and the BBC, will be in conversation with Nanette van der Laan, senior producer from Channel 4 News, who has herself covered Russia for more than 30 years, and whose last reporting trip to Moscow was in March, just after the start of the war.

Signed copies of the book will be for sale at discount (cash or Paypal only).