Brian Whitmore is a senior Russia analyst for RFE/RL. He is the author of The Power Vertical Blog, The Power Vertical Podcast, the Daily Vertical, and the Morning Vertical, all of which focus on Russian affairs. Prior to joining RFE/RL in 2007, Whitmore worked for eight years for the Boston Globe, first in the Globe's Moscow bureau and later as Central and Eastern European correspondent based in Prague. Before this he was a political correspondent and columnist for The Moscow Times and its sister publication, The St. Petersburg Times. He also taught international relations as a graduate instructor at the University of South Carolina and as a visiting lecturer in the International Relations Faculty of St. Petersburg State University in Russia and Mechnikov National University in Odessa, Ukraine. Whitmore’s work has appeared in leading Western foreign affairs media, including The Atlantic, The New Republic, Foreign Policy, and Newsweek, and he is frequently sought out to provide political commentary, including by CNN, the BBC World Service, and NPR. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Politics from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia and an MA in Political Science from Villanova University.