Michele Kelemen
Michele Kelemen has been with NPR for two decades, starting as NPR's Moscow bureau chief and now covering the State Department and Washington's diplomatic corps. Her reports can be heard on all NPR News programs, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
As Diplomatic Correspondent, Kelemen has traveled with Secretaries of State from Colin Powell to Mike Pompeo and everyone in between. She reports on the Trump administration's "America First" foreign policy and before that the Obama and Bush administration's diplomatic agendas. She was part of the NPR team that won the 2007 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of the war in Iraq.
As NPR's Moscow bureau chief, Kelemen chronicled the end of the Yeltsin era and Vladimir Putin's consolidation of power. She recounted the terrible toll of the latest war in Chechnya, while also reporting on a lighter side of Russia, with stories about modern day Russian literature and sports.
Kelemen came to NPR in September 1998, after eight years working for the Voice of America. There, she learned the ropes as a news writer, newscaster and show host.
Michele earned her Bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master's degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Russian and East European Affairs and International Economics.
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A former U.S. Marine is on his way back to the United States after being released from Russian detention. Trevor Reed's release was part of a prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia.
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The U.S. now believes Ukraine can win, a significant change in thinking, and is rushing in weapons. This raises the risk of widening the conflict, analysts say, and may destabilize the global economy. -
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is attending the meeting in Brussels. The U.S. and Europe are imposing new sanctions on Russia and promising to speed up deliveries of weapons to Ukraine.
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Ukraine's president has been sharing videos of destroyed hospitals — calling on the West to impose a no-fly zone. U.S. Secretary of State Blinken says the goal is to end the war not to expand it.
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Can anyone talk Russian President Putin out of his war in Ukraine? French President Macron and Israeli Prime Minister Bennett are trying. The U.S. says it gave Putin off ramps before the invasion.
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A new documentary on PBS — The America Diplomat — tells the stories of three black diplomats representing America at the height of the Cold War, as they fought racism within the State Department.
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The Biden administration has sent Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman on some tough assignments — from negotiating with Russian officials to visiting China.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Friday with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, hoping another round of diplomacy will keep Russian troops massed on the border with Ukraine from invading.
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With Russian troops massed on Ukraine's border and Washington warning Moscow may stage a false flag operation as a pretext to invade, Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Kyiv to show solidarity.
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The U.S., Russia and European powers have tussled over the post-Cold War era in a series of talks that ended with no resolution to the standoff over Ukraine — which Russia is threatening to invade.
