Owen Matthews

Speaker at the St. Gallen Symposium

Owen Matthews has been a leading historian and foreign correspondent since 1995, specialising in Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the wider post-Soviet region. He is noted for his incisive analysis of geopolitics shaped by over 25 years of reporting from Moscow. In his work, Matthews offers nuanced perspectives on conflicts in Chechnya, the Balkans and Ukraine, grounding current events in their historical context. Before his long-standing role with Newsweek, he wrote from Moscow for The Times, The Spectator and The Independent. Beyond journalism, he speaks widely on global affairs and contributes to major international publications.
He is the award-winning author of Overreach, which won the 2023 Pushkin House Book Prize. Matthews studied Modern History at Oxford University.