Vladimir Socor - Biography

Vladimir Socor (born August 3, 1945, Bucharest) is a political analyst of East European affairs for the Jamestown Foundation and its Eurasia Daily Monitor, currently residing in Munich, Germany. Socor's main specialization focuses on the political affairs and the ethnic conflicts of the former Soviet republics and the CIS.

He is the son of Matei Socor, who, as head of the Romanian Agerpres news agency, was involved in the communist regime's propaganda apparatus, according to the findings of the Tismăneanu Commission.

Vladimir Socor graduated from the Russian School in Bucharest, received a B.A. in History from the University of Bucharest, and an M.Phil. in East European History from Columbia University in 1977.

He worked as an analyst for the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute in Munich (1983–1994) and at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington, D.C. (1995–2002). Between 2002 and 2004, Socor worked as a senior fellow at the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies in Washington, D.C. Since 2000, he has contributed articles to the European edition of The Wall Street Journal.

Socor is also critical of Russian president Vladimir Putin's policies regarding the Post-Soviet space and their frozen conflictsmost notably in the separatist enclaves of Transnistria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Economist journalist Edward Lucas describes Socor as "a hawkish pro-Moldovan."

Vladimir Socor was involved in the polemics with the former head of the OSCE mission in Moldova, William Hill, during which Socor criticized OSCE policies in regards to Moldova, and in return was accused by Hill of fallacies and outrageous fabrications.

Selected reports

• The Danube-Black Sea Canal: A Graveyard Revisited, on Radio Free Europe, August 31, 1984
• "The Workers' Protest in Braşov: Assessment and Aftermath", Romania Background Report 231, Radio Free Europe Research, 4 December 1987, pp. 3–10.
• Kremlin Refining Policy in 'Post-Soviet Space', Eurasia Daily Monitor, February 8, 2005
• Russian organizations in Transnistria campaign for a second Kaliningrad, Eurasia Daily Monitor, August 11, 2006
• Kyiv changing ideas, mixing signals on Odessa-Brody oil pipeline, Eurasia Daily Monitor November 16, 2006
• Trans-Black Sea pipeline can bring Caspian gas to Europe, Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume 3, Number 226, December 7, 2006

External links

• Vlad's Corner, Wall Street Journal Europe Columns, at Eurasia Daily Monitor
• Articles by Vladimir Socor, at Eurasia Daily Monitor
• Vladimir Socor, at Jamestown Foundation
• Vladimir Socor, at Moldova Foundation