Luke Harding is a senior international correspondent for The Guardian. He has reported from cities around the world—including Delhi, Berlin, and Moscow—and has covered wars in Iraq and Libya. In 2001, he spent three months in Pakistan and Afghanistan covering the war against the Taliban, and won Foreign Story of the Year from the Foreign Press Association in 2002, for his reporting on the siege of Mazar-i-Sharif. For five years, Harding was The Guardian’s Moscow correspondent, until he was denied re-entry into Russia in 2011, after he wrote a piece critical of Putin’s wealth and his connection to the assassination of the former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko. He thus became the first foreign journalist to be expelled from Russia since the end of the Cold War. His 2011 book, “Mafia State,” provides an account of his expulsion and details the political system in Russia under Vladimir Putin.Harding received a degree in English from Oxford University. In college, Harding was an editor of the student newspaper Cherwell. After graduating, he worked as a correspondent for various newspapers, including The Sunday Correspondent, The Evening Argus, and The Daily Mail. In 1996, he joined the staff of The Guardian. In 2007, Hardingworked in Russia as The Guardian’s Moscow bureau chief, focusing his reporting on corruption under Vladimir Putin’s rule. Harding reported on the psychological harassment he was subjected to by the Federal Security Service during his time in Russia.Harding continues to report on Russia for The Guardian. His latest book—“The Snowden Files”—was released in early 2014.
