Graduate from Moscow State University (Master’s degree in Journalism, 1990 and a PhD in History, 1994). Having started her professional career as an interpreter for the Russian Ministry of Culture, she has later dedicated thirteen years to working for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) first in Paris, and then in Geneva. During this period her responsibilities ranged from promoting the World Heritage Convention and setting up a world-wide programme of grants for artists to editing an international educational review. Having left UNESCO in 2004, she served as Communications Director for Green Cross International, a non-governmental organization founded and chaired by Mikhail Gorbachev. In 2007, she assumed responsibilities of the Editor-in-chief of NashaGazeta.ch.