Alexander Vindman

Alexander Semyon Vindman was born Aleksandr Semyonovich Vindman on June 6, 1975, in Kyiv, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union. At the age of three, following the death of their mother, Alexander, his identical twin brother Yevgeny, and their older brother Leonid, immigrated to New York City in December 1979 with their father, Semyon. He grew up in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn and graduated from Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School in 1993. Vindman continued his education at the State University of New York at Binghamton, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1998. He also completed a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program at Cornell University, receiving a second lieutenant’s commission in the Army’s Infantry Branch in December 1998. Later, he earned a Master of Arts degree from Harvard University in Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian studies.

Commissioned in 1999, Vindman began his military career, including an overseas assignment in South Korea where he led anti-armor platoons. He served in the Iraq War from September 2004 to September 2005, where he was injured by a roadside bomb in October 2004 and received a Purple Heart. Promoted to major in 2008 and lieutenant colonel in September 2015, Vindman became a Foreign Area Officer specializing in Eurasia. This role included postings at U.S. embassies in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Moscow, Russia. From September 2015 to July 2018, he served on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon as a politico-military affairs officer focused on Russia, during which he co-authored the National Military Strategy Russia Annex and was the principal author for the Global Campaign for Russia.

In July 2018, Vindman was appointed as the Director for European Affairs on the White House’s National Security Council (NSC). He gained national attention in October 2019 following his testimony to the U.S. Congress during the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump. His testimony, which corroborated concerns about U.S. policy towards Ukraine, underscored his commitment to national security and adherence to protocol. After leaving the White House, Vindman retired from the U.S. military in July 2020 after 21 years of service, citing a campaign of “bullying, intimidation, and retaliation” by the Trump administration. Post-military, he continued his academic pursuits, earning a Master of International Affairs in 2021 and a Doctor of International Affairs in 2022 from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where he is now a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute. He is also a Pritzker Military Fellow at the Lawfare Institute, an executive board member for the Renew Democracy Initiative, and a senior advisor for VoteVets. In 2021, Vindman published his New York Times bestselling memoir, Here, Right Matters, detailing his experiences and adherence to ethical conduct.