Zhanna Nemtsova

Zhanna Nemtsova is the founder of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom, located in Bonn, Germany. The foundation aims to promote the ideas of freedom and democracy and keep alive the memory of her father Boris Nemtsov, who was a member of the Russian opposition and was killed in 2015. The foundation hosts the annual Boris Nemtsov Forum in Berlin and supports Russian political prisoners and asylum seekers.

In collaboration with the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom, Nemtsova leads the Summer School of Journalism and Cultural Studies in Prague, which launched this summer. In 2017, she was a Draper Hills Fellow. The program is run by Stanford University’s Center for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, which is led by Dr. Francis Fukuyama.

Nemtsova was previously a journalist at Deutsche Welle, where she anchored and produced Russian content, including her program “Nemtsova Interview.” The program interviewed leading European, Russian, and American politicians and intellectuals.

She has also received the PEC Prize for the Protection of Journalists (2016), the International Women of Courage Award (2016), and the Solidarity Prize (2015) for advocating for democracy and human rights.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics with a minor in foreign languages from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.