A finalist for the Pulitzer prize, he is the Russia editor for The Economist and was for many years its Moscow bureau chief. Ostrovsky studied Russian theater history in Moscow and holds a PhD in English literature from Cambridge University. His translation of Tom Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia has been published and staged in Russia. Ostrovsky is a regular guest on radio and TV, where he comments on Russia and the former Soviet Union. The Invention of Russia won the Orwell Prize.