BBC journalist, film-maker and broadcaster with extensive experience of travelling to and investigating human rights abuses in Russia, including Chechnya, Belarus and other parts of the former USSR. Also considerable experience working with victims of human rights abuses in location in countries such as Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Israel / Palestine, China, Turkey and Cuba.
For more than 25 years The Expert has covered events in the former Soviet Union for a range of media outlets, particularly the BBC. Much of their work has focused on human rights and / or military conflict in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Central Asia, and they have accumulated considerable knowledge and experience, as well as having travelled extensively.
The Expert has covered political persecution of opponents to the regimes across the region, especially Russia and Belarus, and has particular experience in Chechnya, from both the wars and more recent persecution and human rights abuses. Their most recent work examined a series of assassinations and assassination attempts on Chechens seeking asylum in Europe, and they have also followed the experience of returnees from Iraq and Syria to the region, as well as the persecution of the gay community in Chechnya.
The Expert has also followed human rights abuses in former Soviet Central Asia, particularly in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, countries they have travelled to and worked in.
The Expert has also worked in Syria and Iraq, covering the wars and grave human rights abuses perpetrated by all sides. their most recent work in the region focused on the violence and persecution following the incursion by Turkey and its Syrian allies into the Kurdish-controlled North and East Syria in 2019.
Likewise The Expert has worked in Afghanistan, reporting on the persecution of the Sikh minority and human rights abuses in general, and in Gaza, investigating the experience of living under a blockade and a non-democratic administration.
And The Expert has travelled to Myanmar and Bangladesh, investigating the persecution and ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya population in Myanmar.
The Expert has also made films about human rights abuses in other countries, such as Turkey, China and Cuba, where they have also made films.
The Expert's experience has so far been in travelling widely and making films, radio programs and writing articles. But with a PhD (in contemporary Russia) and considerable experience researching and verifying accounts of human rights abuse in several countries, investigative journalism, including drawing up documents in support of evidence gathered, they feel they are well placed to prepare and write expert country reports.
The Chechen Blogger on the Run, an investigation of attacks on Chechen asylum seekers in Europe, and the human rights abuses that caused them to seek asylum. BBC Assignment Radio
Who Betrayed Hevrin Khalaf?, documentary on persecution and violence committed in Turkey’s 2019 incursion into North East Syria. BBC
From Our Own Correspondent, Radio 4 – on the persecution of disabled people in Turkish-controlled northern Syria
The Last Sikhs of Afghanistan, documentary about the persecution of Sikhs in Afghanistan. BBC
The Lost Children of the Caliphate, 45-minute documentary on women and children who left Chechnya and other parts of Russia and lived under ISIS, BBC
Working for the Enemy, a documentary about Palestinians working as informants for Israel, BBC Arabic and BBC
Fear and Freedom in Myanmar, documentary on the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya population in Myanmar, BBC
The Children of Che, documentary on the legacy of Che Guevara and persecution in today’s Cuba, BBC
Miss Crimea, film on life a year after the Russian annexation of Crimea, Channel 4
Behind the Balaclavas, film following the start of the war in eastern Ukraine as it unfolded, BBC
Reporting for Bashar – 60 minute documentary inside Syrian state TV, BBC
Obituary of Marina Sal’e, Putin critic, The Independent
Stolen Brides’, 60-minute documentary on persecution, human rights abuses and bride stealing in Chechnya, BBC
Articles on Russian street protest art and artists, The Guardian, Index on Censorship
Film on Belarusian youth, BBC Crossing Continents and Newsnight
Investigative film on enforced psychiatric treatment in China, Channel 4
French, good
Chechen, other North Caucasian
Rohingya
Sikhs
Kurds
Chechen opposition
Human rights activists in former USSR
Rohingya Muslims