Sarah Rainsford Biography
Sarah Rainsford is a media personality serving as BBC Moscow Correspondent. She is also the author of ‘Our Woman in Havana: Reporting Castro’s Cuba’. Previously, she was based in Havana, Madrid, and Istanbul.
Sarah Rainsford Age
Her exact age is unknown. She hasn’t disclosed when and where she was born.
Sarah Rainsford Height
She is tall in stature although her exact height is not known.
Sarah Rainsford Nationality
Rainford is a British national.
Sarah Rainsford Education
Rainsford is a product of a normal state school education in the Midlands. She studied at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge where she earned a degree in Languages; Russian and French. While there, she also played football and was nicknamed Crusher after breaking a girl’s collarbone.
Sarah Rainsford Family
She is the daughter of Derek Rainsford, formerly of Drakes Broughton. Currently, her father lives in Monmouth, Wales. However, there is no information about her mother.
She hasn’t also revealed whether she has siblings or not.
Sarah Rainsford Husband
Sarah is married to Kester Aspden, a writer. The couple met at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge where both were studying. Kester was doing a Ph.D.
In an interview, Sarah described her husband as a rare species. “A portable husband is a rare species in foreign correspondent circles.” She also added, “He can also thank me for taking him to Havana for three years when he learned to dance salsa. Now he’s planning to write about that.”
When they were in Istanbul her husband wrote the book, ‘The Hounding of David Oluwale.’ The book won a Gold Dagger award for crime non-fiction.
However, Sarah hasn’t disclosed whether she has children or not.
I’ve left my husband at home with Smudge the pup today while I cover the protest in Moscow. Wonder who will have the most challenging day) pic.twitter.com/D7pqsVohfN
— Sarah Rainsford (@sarahrainsford) January 31, 2021
Sarah Rainsford BBC
Rainford started off as an intern and later became a producer at Bloomberg TV. After that, she got a job with the BBC Russian Service, calling correspondents to record their reports and then cutting the quarter-inch tape with a razor blade.
In August 2000, she moved to Moscow. It was right after the Kursk submarine sank and at the very beginning of Vladimir Putin’s time in power. Two days later she was covering the disaster as a producer.
In 2002, Sarah got her break when the Nord-Ost theatre siege happened. A group of Chechen militants stormed a Moscow theatre in the middle of a musical, taking hundreds of people hostage. She ended up outside doing her first live reports on a mobile phone. Then in September 2004, the horrific school siege in Belsan was a huge story. Her team won a Sony Gold for their coverage.
Later on, she was based in Istanbul, Madrid, and Cuba. She worked in Havana, Cuba for three years from 2011. While in Cuba, She wrote her book, ‘Our Woman in Havana: Reporting Castro’s Cuba’. In an interview she said; “Cuba was the most frustrating place I’d ever been as a journalist. Of course, it’s a tropical island with a fascinating history. But it’s also a one-party state where you need Communist Party permission to film anything and most of the time the answer’s no. I managed to get some great stories in any case.”
In 2014, Rainsford was deployed to Kyiv for a month. She later headed back to Moscow, where she is currently.
Sarah Rainsford Expulsion from Russia
Rainsford, the BBC’s Moscow correspondent is being forced to leave Russia at the end of August when her visa expires. Russian authorities have made it clear that her visa will not be renewed. The Russian state media said the move is in retaliation for the refusal of the UK to grant visas to Russian journalists. Sarah spoke to the BBC Today programme about her sorrow at leaving a country she loves.
“I am being expelled – it’s not a failure to renew my visa, although technically that’s what it is. I’m being expelled and I’ve been told that I can’t come back, ever.”
“To be honest, it’s devastating personally but it’s also shocking. Russia has never been a posting for me: it’s not just any old place. It is a country that I’ve devoted a huge amount of my life to trying to understand…”
“I calculated just now that it’s almost a third of my life I’ve lived in Russia, so one way or another: learning the language, studying the culture, the history, living here, trying to understand the people, and of course as a journalist, over many years for the BBC, on and off, working in Russia.”
“I’ve really loved trying to tell the story of Russia to the world but it is increasingly a difficult story to tell. I have to say, though, I wasn’t expecting this to happen. There were clear signs for Russian media: there have been really serious problems recently, for Russian independent journalists, but until now, for the foreign press, we’d somehow been shielded from all of that.”
“But this, I think, is a clear sign that things have changed. It’s another really bad sign about the state of affairs in Russia and another downward turn in the relationship between Russia and the world – a sign that Russia is increasingly closing in on itself.”
Today my BBC colleague @sarahrainsford had to leave Russia. The authorities had labelled her a threat to national security. Outrageous, unfair & an assault on media freedom. Here’s Sarah’s report on her expulsion. @BBCNews @BBCWorld Producer @BBCWillVernon Camera/edit @mattgodtv pic.twitter.com/3kMO1rEZhZ
— Steve Rosenberg (@BBCSteveR) August 31, 2021
Sarah Rainsford Salary and Net Worth
Her salary and net worth are under review
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Also, Read; Kester Aspden, Anna Holligan
