Michael Martens, journalist, born in Hamburg in 1973. From 1995 to 1999, he was based in various countries of the former Soviet Union (Kyrgyzstan, Kazachstan, Ukraine, Russia) and also covered Afghanistan, then writing mostly for German “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) and Siss “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” (NZZ). In 1999 and became FAZ-correspondent for South East Europe in 2002. He was seated in Belgrade (2002-2009), Istanbul (2009-2015) and Athens (2015-2018). Since 2019 he lives and works in Vienna, still covering South East Europe for FAZ. F.A.Z. reaches between 800.000 and one million readers daily. The daily and its Sunday edition “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” are widely considered to be the most influential daily paper among decision makers published in German language.