Julia Ioffe facts for kids

Julia Ioffe (born October 18, 1982) is an American journalist who was born in Russia. She writes articles for many well-known publications like The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. Julia Ioffe also appears on TV news shows as an expert on Russia. She is currently the Washington correspondent for a website called Puck.

Early Life and Education

Julia Ioffe was born in Moscow, Russia, into a Russian Jewish family. When she was 7 years old, on April 28, 1990, her family moved to New York City in the United States. They settled in Columbia, Maryland, where she grew up. Julia went to Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School and finished there in 2001.

She first thought about becoming a doctor. However, Julia Ioffe later changed her mind and studied Soviet history at Princeton University. She graduated in 2005. Her main project, called "Selling Utopia: Soviet Propaganda and the Spanish Civil War", was guided by her professor, Jan T. Gross.

While at Princeton, Julia was the vice-president of a student group called the Princeton Israel Public Affairs Committee. In a newspaper article from 2003, she was quoted supporting Israel's ways of defending itself against terrorism. This included building the Israeli West Bank Wall. She believed the wall was needed to protect citizens from attacks.

Her Journalism Career

Julia Ioffe has worked for many different news organizations. She started her career at the Columbia Journalism School's Knight Case Studies Initiative.

In March 2018, a publisher called Ecco announced that Julia Ioffe would write a book. The book, titled Russia Girl, was planned to be published in 2023.

Today, Julia Ioffe works as the Washington correspondent for the website Puck.

Reporting from Russia

In 2009, Julia Ioffe received a Fulbright Scholarship. This allowed her to work in Russia. She spent three years in Moscow, from 2009 to 2012. During this time, she worked as a correspondent for The New Yorker and Foreign Policy magazines.

She was recognized for her excellent reporting. In 2011, she was a finalist for the Livingston Award. This was for her story about Alexei Navalny, who was a lawyer and an activist fighting against corruption.

Julia Ioffe also wrote about the protests and political changes happening when Vladimir Putin returned to being president. Her column, "Kremlinology 2012," was published in Foreign Policy.

In February 2012, The New Yorker published her story about Mikhail Prokhorov. He was the third-richest man in Russia at the time and ran in the 2012 presidential elections. Julia Ioffe wondered in her article if Putin and Prokhorov were truly competing or working together.

During a big protest on May 6, 2012, Julia Ioffe took a memorable photo. It showed a small boy on a bicycle with training wheels, facing a line of Russian riot police. This was the day before Putin's inauguration.

Working at The New Republic

In 2012, Julia Ioffe came back to the U.S. She became a senior editor for The New Republic magazine in Washington, D.C..

At The New Republic, she wrote about American politics. This included stories about disagreements within the Republican Party. Her 2013 story about Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was also a finalist for the Livingston Award. She also covered the protests in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014.

Julia Ioffe continued to write about Russia. She covered the 2013 anti-gay laws and Russia's ban on Americans adopting Russian children. In 2013, she visited Moscow to see what was happening with the opposition groups after the government's actions in 2012. She interviewed people like Alexei Navalny, future presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak, and members of the music group Pussy Riot. Her article, "The Loneliness of Vladimir Putin," appeared in The New Republic in February 2014.

While covering the Sochi Olympics in 2014, Julia Ioffe also traveled to Ukraine. There, pro-Western protestors had removed the president who was friendly with Moscow. She predicted that Russia would enter Eastern Ukraine after it had taken over Crimea. She also went to Eastern Ukraine to report on the war in Donbas.

In December 2014, Julia Ioffe was one of many staff members who left The New Republic. They resigned to protest changes planned by the magazine's owner, Chris Hughes.

Other Major Roles

In January 2015, Julia Ioffe started working as a contributor for The New York Times Magazine.

In May 2016, she became a contributing writer at Politico.

On December 6, 2016, The Atlantic announced they were hiring Julia Ioffe. She joined The Atlantic in early 2017 to cover national security, foreign policy, and politics. The editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, called her a "tireless reporter" and a "gifted analyst."

She wrote about The Atlantic getting messages between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks. These messages were important during the presidential campaign. Julia Ioffe wrote that "though Trump Jr. mostly ignored the frequent messages from WikiLeaks, he at times appears to have acted on its requests… and shared that information with Donald Trump’s senior campaign officials".

Julia Ioffe also gained access to emails between Trump's campaign chief Paul Manafort and Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska is a wealthy Russian businessman with strong connections to the Kremlin. Her article stated that "Manafort attempted to use his leadership role in the Trump campaign to gain favor with a Russian businessman close to Vladimir Putin".

Reporting on Russia and Politics

Julia Ioffe often appears on national TV channels as an expert on Russia. Since 2013, she has been a guest on shows like Morning Joe, All In with Chris Hayes, Hardball, The Rachel Maddin Show, and The 11th Hour with Brian Williams on MSNBC. She has also appeared on The Lead with Jake Tapper on CNN, Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report on Comedy Central.

Discussion with Lawrence O'Donnell

On August 7, 2013, Julia Ioffe had a discussion with TV host Lawrence O'Donnell about how much control Putin had over Russian media. Julia Ioffe later said that O'Donnell interrupted her and lectured her instead of letting her answer his questions.

The next day, Julia Ioffe wrote an article on The New Republic's website titled "Dear Lawrence O'Donnell, Don't Mansplain to Me About Russia". In it, she explained that she had spent years reporting from Russia, spoke the language, and was invited as an expert. She felt that TV shows should let experts share their knowledge clearly.

This article led to a big discussion about how TV and online media interact. Many people talked about how it's hard to have a detailed discussion on TV, but online articles allow for more complex ideas.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Incident

In November 2019, Julia Ioffe made a mistake on Twitter. She thought a writer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was a Russian troll. This was because a story about Hunter Biden used a symbol she thought was a Russian-style quotation mark. When she realized her mistake, Julia Ioffe deleted her tweets and apologized.

Frontline PBS Interview

On March 3, 2022, Julia Ioffe was interviewed by Mike Wiser for a TV program. This interview was shown on March 15, 2022, in a Frontline episode called "Putin's Road to War". She talked about Russia's invasion of Ukraine. She said that Putin had misjudged how much support or opposition the Russian people had for the invasion.