Steve LeVine covers foreign affairs for BusinessWeek. He previously was correspondent for Central Asia and the Caucasus for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times for 11 years. His first book, The Oil and the Glory, a history of the former Soviet Union through the lens of oil, was published in October 2007. Putin’s Labyrinth, his new book, profiles Russia through the lives and deaths of six Russians. It was released this week.

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A Blog on Russia, Central Asia and
the Caucasus

Friday, December 21, 2007

Merry Christmas, Alan Johnston

In a great year for me, by far the best news of all came July 4th when my former Tashkent roommate, BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, was released unharmed from captivity in Gaza. Alan, who is 45, had been hostage for almost four months. He credits Hamas, otherwise branded a terrorist organization, for his release.

I saw Alan a couple of months ago over a meal in London, and he looked and sounded great. I was reminded of this when his voice came on NPR this morning in an interview about his new book, Kidnapped: And other Dispatches. It appears not to be available as yet in the U.S., but I did find it on Amazon.co.uk. It's sure to be a wonderful read.

Merry Christmas, Alan.

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