Masha Gessen

Maria Alexandrovna Gessen, better known as Masha Gessen (born 13 January 1967), is a Russian and United States journalist and author. She holds both Russian and US citizenship. She has written on LGBT rights and Russian affairs, and is currently the Russian correspondent for US News & World Report. Her works have also appeared in The New Republic, New Statesman, Granta, Slate and Vanity Fair. Her 2012 book The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin is a political biography of Vladimir Putin, whom she describes as a dictator. She was dismissed from her position as the chief editor of Russia's oldest magazine, Vokrug Sveta on 1 September 2012 after she refused to send a reporter to cover a Russian Geographic Society event featuring President Putin, claiming that it had become a mouthpiece of Putin's government.