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Hi, my name is Yuri Pushkin. I'm an American journalist
currently based in Moscow, Russia. My family is originally from Moscow,
but my parents' work made it possible for them to work in Europe
and the United States.
While I grew up in Midwestern America, near Chicago, Illinois,
being bilingual was always important to me, so at home,
we always spoke Russian.
One of the jobs I had while in college was writing radio commericals
for a local radio station.
They weren't able to pay me very much, but one of the things they did
provide me with was a DJ gig, which was the beginning
of my journalism career.
After I graduated, I continued working as a freelance copywriter
and an advertising designer around Illinois.
Eventually, I came to Russia to work at a Russian version of Cartoon Network,
writing advertisements and on-air promo for them.
But after doing that for a year, I realized that there was too much
happening in the world for me to be watching cartoons all day long.
So, I quit the job and I continued on as a freelance journalist.
Being located in Moscow allowed me to have
many opportunities as a journalist, from an international perspective.
I was able to write for SPIN Music, CNN.com, the Guardian
and other publications.
I've always been interested in covering cultural stories, because to me
cultural activity is the best reflection on what is happening
in a society economically and politically.
Cultural stories don't always make it to the front pages of
newspapers or covers of magazines,
but to me, they are the ones that hold the most significance to people.
As journalists, I believe that we have three obligations:
we should be good, interesting storytellers,
we should never lose interest in the stories that we're covering,
always wanting to go deeper and know more about it.
We should never, ever take the truth,
no matter how solid it seems, for granted.