(1958) dares to risk his neck as a Russian film maker with critical documentaries and films on tricky political issues in his native country. His documentary Russian Lessons on the one-sided news coverage of the Russo-Georgian war in 2008 earned him the title Man of the Year 2009 in Georgia. Owing to the sharp criticism expressed on the Russian government and the army the film could only be shown in Russia to friends from the opposition. His film Rebellion, the Litvinenko Case from 2007 is a indictment against the Russian state security service FSB, who have been behind various bomb attacks and hijackings, allegedly carried out in order to keep Putin in the saddle. Nekrasov did various film and cultural studies in Russia, Paris and Bristol. In 1985 he was Andrej Tarkovsky’s right hand man in the shooting and editing of Sacrifice (Offret). Subsequently he made a number of documentaries and tv programmes. His first short from 1993, Springing Lenin, won the UNESCO prize in Cannes. The long feature following it, Love is as Strong as Death, won prizes too. Nekrasov is also a playwright and works as a stage director.

(Coevorden, 1957) worked as a correspondent in Paris and Moscow for among others Dutch Radio 1 Journaal and the weekly Elsevier before being elected in 2004 as a Dutch labour party politician in the European Parliament. In 2009 he was Dutch labour party leader in the elections for the European Parliament. In the Euro-parliament he is a member of the development aid and human rights commissions. He chairs the delegation for the relations with Afghanistan. In his career as a politician the former Eastern bloc continues to play a role. In 2007 he was successful in his resistance against the projected construction of the Via Baltica through the Rospuda Valley, a unique nature reserve. In 2004 he was an observer in the presidential elections in Ukraine and in 2010 headed the EU observers’ mission to the elections in Ethiopia. Berman was at drama school in Maastricht before deciding to study psychology in 1983. His maternal grandfather, Marinus van der Goes van Naters, was the first parliamentary leader for the Dutch labour party in the Lower House.

(Bloemendaal, 1978) was called “the least boring Dutch travel writer” by the late Kees Fens. And indeed he pulls out all the stops to treat his readers to surprising stories. For his work as a Russia correspondent he travelled across the former Eastern bloc in search of special stories. After his history studies Brandt Corstius worked for the tv talkshow Barend and Van Dorp for two years. Meanwhile he travelled to Russia on a regular basis and in 2005 he decided to settle in Moscow as a correspondent, writing for the Dutch daily Trouw and the Belgian daily De Standaard. In 2008 and 2009 he made two highly acclaimed series about the daily lives of the Russians for VPRO television, From Moscow to Magadan and From Moscow to Murmansk. Brandt Corstius wrote two books, Rusland voor gevorderden (Russia for Advanced Students), on his often absurd life in Moscow and travels through Russia, and Kleine landjes (Small countries), on obscure regions and communities in the Caucasus. In the summer of 2010 he hosted the tv progamme Zomergasten (Summer guests).