Piero Ostellino, was born in Venice in 1935 to a family from Turin. He got his degree in Political science at Università di Torino studying with Alessandro Passerin d ‘Entrèves and Norberto Bobbio.
Since 1967 he has written for Corriere della Sera, for which he was correspondent in Moscow from1973 to 1978, in Beijing from 1979 to 1980, and special envoy as well as editor from 1984 to 1987. He currently writes the weekly column “Il dubbio”.
In 1963 he founded the Centro di Ricerca e Documentazione Luigi Einaudi di Torino and, in 1964, the magazine “Biblioteca della Libertà” of which he was editor until 1970. He is still honorary president of the Centro Einaudi. From 1990 to 1995 he was director of ISPI (Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale) in Milan.
Among his publications are: “Il diplomatico” (Ed. Vallecchi), “Vivere in Russia” (Ed. Rizzoli), “Vivere in Cina” (Ed. Rizzoli), “Cose viste e pensate” (Ed. Rizzoli), “Il dubbio” (Ed. Rizzoli), “In che cosa credono i russi” (Ed. Longanesi), “Intervista a Roy Medvedev sul dissenso in URSS” (Ed. Laterza),: “Letizia Moratti: La nostra scuola. Conversazione con Piero Ostellino”(Ed. Rizzoli).
Father of two, grandfather of three, Ostellino divides his time between Milan, Provence and Parisi.