Expert Bio

Jill Dougherty is currently a Distinguished Fellow with the Wilson Center. 

Dougherty is an expert on Russia and the region. 
She served as CNN's Moscow Bureau Chief for almost a decade. She reported on the presidencies of Boris Yeltin and Vladimir Putin, as well as the political career of Mikhail Gorbachev, the first – and last - Soviet president. She covered a number of seminal events in modern Russia, including the collapse of the Soviet Union; the coup against Gorbachev; Ukraine’s Orange Revolution and Maidan Revolution of Dignity; Georgia’s Rose Revolution; Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Dougherty served as CNN White House correspondent for six years, covering the presidencies of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. As Foreign Affairs Correspondent she reported from the U.S. State Department. She served as U.S. Affairs Editor, reporting from Washington, DC. Based in Hong Kong, she was Managing Editor CNN International, Asia-Pacific, in charge of seven bureaus across the region. 

She currently is a CNN on-air contributor, commenting on Russia-related issues; Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies; Distinguished Fellow at The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; and Fellow at the Kennan Institute. She has pursued research on Russia and the media as a fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government; at the Woodrow Wilson Center; and at the International Centre for Defence and Security in Tallinn, Estonia.

Her articles, book reviews and commentary have appeared in theatlantic.com; politico.com; wilsonquarterly.com; washingtonpost.com; cnn.com and other publications. She is the author of My Russia: What I Saw from the Kremlin, a book about her decades-long experiences in Russia and the region. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the World Affairs Council.

Dougherty received her B.A. degree in Slavic Languages and Literature from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and her M.A. from Georgetown University, where she researched Russia’s soft power diplomacy.