One reporter's fascination with Siberia leaves readers asking for more

Fred Weir has the uncanny ability to help you understand the ideas and values shaping this complex, diverse, and fascinating country. Earlier this summer, Fred proposed a reporting trip to the eastern Russian republic of Buryatia. The goal: provide a rare glimpse into the historical, political, religious, and environmental culture of this mountainous region of Siberia. Five stories later, we were thrilled that Monitor subscribers devoured Fred’s Siberian Crossroads dispatches at an impressive clip.

Siberian Crossroads also piqued my curiosity. What’s it like to cover Russia when you’ve lived there for more than three decades. Why is the Russo-American relationship so fraught? As part of our new monthly profiles of Monitor journalists, I posed those questions and others to Fred.  

You’ve lived in Russia for more than three decades now. What prompted you to choose Russia as home?

I come from a family in Canada that had long connections in Russia, including family ones. I studied Russian history at