Robert Eksuzyan

What sticks out was his enthusiasm, his excitement when he found some hot news item buried in the depths of Trud or the inside back page of Izvestia. Robert took enormous pride in spotting those hidden gems which did so much to make the bureau unique, pursuing the correspondent of the moment around the office until the story was written and despatched, watching over the copy to make sure we had it right. He was competitive; when the timings began to be fed back, Robert took it almost personally if we were behind.  

And let’s not forget how much he helped us in our understanding of the labyrinthine world of Soviet politics. Before the days of Tolya Verbin and the other “local” correspondents, we foreigners relied upon Robert and his colleagues to interpret this strange world. He was always happy to explain what the appearance of a certain article meant, the mention of a name, the order that names were listed, an unexpected promotion or demotion. And so on. So much of the interpretation of events which made the bureau the bellwether of the Moscow press corps had its origins in conversations with Robert and his colleagues.

I still remember the day during the convulsions of the Soviet collapse when Robert, after hours of dialling, got through to Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the deposed Georgian president, then in exile in Chechnya. His interview was exclusive and ground-breaking and was published around the world, under his byline. ■