About James

I'm James Barbour, and I am Press Secretary at the British Embassy in Moscow. I joined the FCO in 1997, having studied Politics at Edinburgh. It was either this or banking; eleven years later I've never regretted the decision. Roughly half of my career so far has been spent in London, in a range of jobs covering the OSCE and the Balkans, corporate social responsibility and corporate governance, press work and two years in the private sector working in corporate PR. From 2000 to 2004 I was fortunate enough to be posted to our High Commission in Cape Town as Second Secretary (Political), a fascinating job in an amazing country.

As Press Secretary in Moscow I am responsible for managing and portraying the Embassy's - and the British Government's - public presence in Russia, and for contributing presentational perspectives to the Embassy's policy discussions. It's a tremendously enjoyable and varied job in one of the UK's largest and most high-profile Embassies. But it's also a difficult job to describe in a couple of sentences; hopefully this blog will give more of an idea of what I, and the rest of the Embassy, get up to.

I am married to Carrie, who is a Consultant with Deloitte and does things with tax, benefit schemes and suchlike that I don't understand. We have two children, both at school here in Moscow. And in my spare time, when I have any, my passions are '60s and '70s sportscars and playing the saxophone (but not very well).

I'm also a bit of a nerd. My flat is full of random bits of technology, including far too many Apple products. I'm keen to help the FCO make the most of social media; this is my third blog, and I dabble with Facebook and Twitter.