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My name is Geert Groot Koerkamp and I am a freelance journalist
living and working in Moscow, Russia.
My home country is the Netherlands, where I was born in 1964
in a Catholic family in the east of the country.
I first came to Russia in 1989. Then, of course, it was still the Soviet Union.
And after having studied journalism, Russian and Russian Studies,
I left for Russia in the early 1990s,
and have been working here as a correspondent
for various Dutch and Belgian media ever since,
for radio and television, as well as for the printed press.
From our base here in Moscow, my colleagues and I have traveled
to most parts of the former Soviet Union, which fell apart in 1991
into 15 independent states.
It is a fascinating world. It is, in fact, a continent in itself.
A world facing enormous problems, political and economic transition,
environmental disasters, war and civil strife.
But it is also a world of fantastic cultures, of ethnic and religious
diversity and, of course, of natural beauty.
Having lived in Russia for so many years, of course you become
part of the country, and the country becomes part of you, literally.
My wife is Russian, my children speak Russian and think in Russian.
As for myself, I am still as Dutch as a Dutchman can be.
And that means that still, every single day, I continue to let myself be surprised
and sometimes amazed at the many, many things that distinguish this country,
this society, these people from everything I know
in the country where I was born and raised.
And without any doubt, this view of an outsider turned insider
finds its way into the stories I produce, and which I hope
you will enjoy and find informative.