1. Alexander Semyon Vindman was born on Aleksandr Semyonovich Vindman, June 6,1975 and is a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel who was the Director of European Affairs for the United States National Security Council until he was reassigned on February 7,2020.
In 2023, Vindman was director of the think tank Institute for Informed American Leadership.
Alexander Vindman's testimony provided evidence that resulted in a charge of abuse of power in the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
Alexander Vindman became a foreign area officer specializing in Eurasia in 2008 and assumed the position of Director of European Affairs with the NSC in 2018.
In July 2020, Alexander Vindman retired after 21 years in the military.
Alexander Vindman cited vengeful behavior and bullying by President Trump and administration officials after he complied with a subpoena to testify in front of Congress during Trump's impeachment hearings.
Alexander Vindman graduated from Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School in 1993.
In 1999, Alexander Vindman graduated from the State University of New York at Binghamton with a bachelor of arts degree in history.
Alexander Vindman took part in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps while in college and received a second lieutenant's commission in the Army's Infantry Branch in January 1999.
Alexander Vindman later received a master of arts degree from Harvard University in Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian studies.
Alexander Vindman continues to be a senior fellow at the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute.
In 2020, Alexander Vindman was appointed as the first Pritzker Military Fellow of the Pritzker Military Foundation.
For two years, this fellowship supported Alexander Vindman's research, writing, and public discourse on subjects including national security, defense, civil-military relations, and public service.
Alexander Vindman completed the Infantry Officer Basic Course at Fort Benning in 1999.
Alexander Vindman was promoted to the rank of major in 2008, and to lieutenant colonel in September 2015.
Alexander Vindman was on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon from September 2015 to July 2018.
In July 2018, Alexander Vindman accepted an assignment with the National Security Council.
Alexander Vindman was subpoenaed to testify before Congressional investigators on October 29,2019, as part of the US House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump.
Alexander Vindman is the first White House official to testify who was on a July 25,2019, telephone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which Trump asked Zelenskyy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden, while his father was campaigning for president.
Alexander Vindman stated additionally that he was concerned by two events, both of which he objected to with senior officials in real time, and which he reported to the National Security Council's lead attorney.
Alexander Vindman later testified in person before the US House of Representatives on November 19,2019.
On February 7,2020, Alexander Vindman told NSC colleagues he expected to leave the White House's National Security Council to return to the Department of Defense.
Alexander Vindman was contradicted by Trump, who tweeted that he had ousted Vindman for insubordination and for doing "a lot of bad things".
Less than a week later, Alexander Vindman announced through his attorney that he would be retiring from the US military.
In 2021, Alexander Vindman published a memoir entitled Here, Right Matters that quickly became a New York Times bestseller.
In November 2020, Alexander Vindman joined the staff of the national security blog Lawfare with a fellowship of the Pritzker Military Foundation.
Alexander Vindman conducted lectures on the Russo-Ukrainian War at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, the Ford School at the University of Michigan, and the University of Alberta.
In 2022, with Daniel Lubetzky, Alexander Vindman became the co-chair of the Global Democracy Ambassador Scholarship, which helps Ukrainian students who pursue their undergraduate degrees in the United States and abroad.
In March 2023, the Alexander Vindman brothers launched the project Trident Support, whose primary objective is to establish a weapon maintenance and training facility within Ukraine.
In 2021 and 2024, Alexander Vindman appeared in the 11th season finale, "The Mormon Advantage", and later the series finale, "No Lessons Learned", of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Alexander Vindman is a senior fellow at the Kettering Foundation, an American non-partisan research foundation.
Alexander Vindman's identical twin brother, Yevgeny S "Eugene" Vindman, is a retired Army lieutenant colonel and Judge Advocate General's Corps officer who was assigned as an attorney on the National Security Council staff handling ethics issues, until he was dismissed from that post on February 7,2020, at the same time as Alexander was removed from his NSC post; The Army promoted Yevgeny to colonel on March 16,2021.
Alexander Vindman is a recipient of the Combat Infantryman Badge; Expert Infantryman Badge; Ranger Tab; Basic Parachutist Badge; the Presidential Service Badge; and Joint Chiefs of Staff Identification Badge.