Igor Petrov

Igor Petrov is a journalist, editor, translator, historian, and writer. A Swiss citizen, he has headed the Russian and Ukrainian editorial offices of SWI swissinfo.ch, the successor to Swiss Radio International, since 2012.

Prior to this, he worked in diplomacy, international education, and journalism. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he worked at the Russian embassies in Germany and Switzerland, leaving government service in 2006. He taught and coordinated the work of the Russian-Swiss Educational and Research Center at the Russian State University for the Humanities. Igor Petrov is a German historian by education. In 1995, he graduated from the History Department of Moscow State University, then defended his PhD dissertation on the foreign policy of Gustav Stresemann. He works in Russian, German, and English, and has extensive experience in literary and journalistic translation, editing, and adapting texts for an international audience. His translation work includes Russian versions of Austrian historian Maria Wakunig's monograph "Aristocrat and Diplomat" and Bernese writer Amelie Hüsser's novel "Where Do You Come From, Stranger?"

He is the author of the books "Duty-Free. A Diplomatic Novel," "Swiss Haus, or... At the Beginning of August. A Swiss Novel," and "Switzerland in Detail."

In his writing, Igor Petrov addresses themes of Switzerland, language, memory, cultural mediation, and life between multiple social and literary spaces. Other topics of importance to him include Russian aggression against Ukraine and the fate of literature in the age of artificial intelligence.

Sandermoen Publishing is preparing to release his book "Ostworld. Swiss Stories."