We are proud to announce that our senior journalist Simona Pipko’s son has been nominated by President Trump as Ambassidor to Estonia

Simona Pipko is the senior U.S., Eastern European, and Russian journalist for DrRichSwier.com.

Simona began publishing In our eMagazine on December 17th, 2014.

Today we are proud to announce that her son Roman has been nominated as the U.S. Ambassador to Estonia.

Simona is a graduate of Leningrad Law School, she practiced law as a defense attorney for twenty-five years in the capital of Estonia, Tallinn.

The Jewish News Syndicate staff in a column titled “Trump names Jewish lawyer Roman Pipko as envoy to Estonia” reports,

Pipko deserves attention for “his remarkable Jewish mother, Simona Pipko, who was a prominent defense attorney in the USSR in political cases and has staunch anti-authoritarian credentials,” Garry Kasparov wrote.

(Jan. 4, 2025 / JNS)

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump nominated Roman Pipko as U.S. ambassador to Estonia, where the Jewish lawyer was born and raised.

“He has extensive experience in dealing with foreign governments, having represented U.S. interests in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Russian American Enterprise Fund,” Trump stated.

“Roman has represented American companies, negotiating projects in Mongolia, Africa, Russia, Western Europe and his native Estonia, in cooperation with U.S. government agencies, and has worked with foreign governments on the enforcement of U.S. sanctions,” the president-elect stated, noting that Pipko is an alumnus of Columbia University and Yale Law School.

“As a legal immigrant, he has lived the promise of America, and I trust that he will advance American interests in his new role,” Trump stated.

Garry Kasparov, the Jewish former world chess champion and activist, wrote that “the next U.S. ambassador to Estonia, Estonian-born Roman Pipko, deserves attention, especially for his remarkable Jewish mother, Simona Pipko, who was a prominent defense attorney in the USSR in political cases and has staunch anti-authoritarian credentials. Remarkable.”

Pipko is president of the board of the Park East Day School, a Jewish school in Manhattan. Per the school’s site, he “advised the Commission for Art Recovery on its work on behalf of Jewish victims of Nazi looting and taught in several universities in the tri-state area.”

“For the last 25 years, Roman has been an executive and special counsel at Leon Tempelsman and Son, a New York-based international development company,” it states. “In that capacity, he has implemented groundbreaking transactions around the world. He has also overseen a team of multinational lawyers and negotiated with government agencies in connection with a dispute resolution and litigation involving misconduct by international banks.”

Pipko’s “family has been members of the Park East Synagogue since 1974,” according to the site. “He and his wife were married and had their son’s bar mitzvah here. Both of their children attended the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Park East Day School, where they received excellent academic and Jewish studies education.”

Pipko’s daughter Elizabeth Pipko, a former model, is the national spokeswoman for the Republican Party.

ABOUT SIMONA PIPKO

Simona is a graduate of Leningrad Law School, she practiced law as a defense attorney for twenty-five years in the capital of Estonia, Tallinn. Leaving behind her Communist husband in 1981, she immigrated to the United States with her two children.. While living in New York City and teaching at the New School for Social Research and New York University, she wrote a series of articles for various publications, including The International Lawyer ABA, and Law and National Security Intelligence Report.

Simona Pipko is also an Alumni of the George F. Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies. She is the author of nine books and hundreds of articles published in the United States.

To learn more about Simona please visit: SimonaPipko.com.

To read Simona’s columns click here: Simona Pipko

©2025 Editorial Board – DrRichSwier.com. All rights reserved