Hugh Barnes is a journalist and specialist on Russian matters. Born in London, he was educated at Oxford and Cambridge universities. He covered the wars in Kosovo and Afghanistan for various newspapers in the UK and abroad. He has also been the director of the democracy and conflict programme at the Foreign Policy Centre. His publications include Special Effects, Understanding Iran and Gannibal: The Moor of Petersburg, a biography of Abram Gannibal, the African soldier-scholar at the tsar's court who was also the great-grandfather of Alexander Pushkin. He is currently the managing editor of Oblomovism Ltd, an independent consultancy focusing on Russia and the CIS, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. [More at Wikipedia]

January 1st, 1963 in London (Age 61)