Elena Belokurova
is Lecturer at the Faculty of International Relations and Political Science, North-West Institute of Management, the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. At the same time, she is also Director of the German-Russian Exchange in St. Petersburg, Russia. She has studied sociology and defended her candidate dissertation in Political Science in 2000. She worked in 2000–2014 as co-founder and researcher at the Centre for European Studies – EU Centre at the European University St. Petersburg; in 2008–2013 she also worked as Russian Deputy Director of the Centre for German and European Studies and in 2004–2019 she taught at St. Petersburg State University. Her research interests include civil society, EU-Russia cross-border cooperation and local politics.
Fabienne Bossuyt
is Professor at the Centre for EU Studies, Department of Political Science, at Ghent University (Belgium). She holds a PhD in Politics and International Relations from Aston University and a PhD in EU Studies from Ghent University. Her main area of expertise is the EU’s foreign policy and, in particular, the EU’s relations with the post-Soviet space. Her most recent research projects focus on various aspects of the EU’s relations with and policies towards post-Soviet countries, including democracy promotion, development policy and human rights promotion. She has published articles in, among others, Democratization, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Journal of International Relations and Development, Eurasian Geography and Economics, East European Politics & Societies, and Communist and Post-Communist Studies. She is currently co-editing a book on the EU’s and China’s engagement with Central Asia (Routledge) and a double special issue on the Sino-Russian relationship for the journal Eurasian Geography and Economics.
Celia Challet
is Academic Assistant at the College of Europe in Bruges in the European Legal Studies Department. She holds an llm in EU Law from the College of Europe (2018–2019 Manuel Marín promotion) and a master’s degree in European Business Law from the University Paris ii Panthéon-Assas. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Ghent, where she is preparing a PhD thesis devoted to the judicial review of EU sanctions adopted in response to the crisis in Ukraine.
is Associate Professor at Université Paris 3-Sorbonne nouvelle and Visiting Professor at the College of Europe. Her research interests focus on the EU’s and Russia’s policies in their ‘contested neighbourhood’, domestic change in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus as well as region-building processes in Eurasia. She has taken part in EU-FP7/H-2020 projects and published extensively on these topics.
Andrey Demidov
works as Scientific Coordinator at the Institute for Advanced Study at the Central European University (ceu). He obtained his PhD from the same institution in 2014 and since then he has worked as Visiting Professor at the ceu Department of Public Policy, as Postdoctoral Fellow at access Europe (Amsterdam Center for European Studies) and as Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam. His research interests include civil society, EU-Russia relations and EU public policy.
Kirill Entin
is Deputy Registrar – Head of the Legal Research and Analysis Department at the Eurasian Economic Union Court. He graduated in EU Law with honours from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (mgimo University) and the College of Europe (Bruges) in 2008. In 2011, he defended a PhD thesis in EU Law. He also completed research projects on the legal aspects of EU autonomous restrictive measures at the Institute of European Law in Fribourg (Switzerland) in 2015 and on the comparison between the case law of the Eurasian Economic Union (eaeu) Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union (cjeu) at the Ghent European Law Institute in 2019. Before taking his position at the eaeu Court, he worked as Associate Professor at Higher School of Economics (hse) developing and teaching courses on EU law, EU-Russia relations and public international law. In 2012–2013, he became the first Russian paid trainee at the cjeu. He is currently Head of the Eurasian Sector at the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies at hse and is a Member of the board of editors of the International Justice journal (Mezhdunarodnoe pravosudie).
Narine Ghazaryan
is Associate Professor in Law at the School of Law, University of Nottingham. She specialises in EU international relations law with an interest in the EU’s relations with its neighbouring countries. She has published a monograph, journal articles and book chapters in the field. Ghazaryan has acted as an
Benedikt Harzl
is Assistant Professor at the Russian East European Eurasian Studies Centre (reees) of the Law Faculty of the University of Graz. He has worked in various research institutions across Europe, among them the European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano (Italy) in 2007–2012. While the University of Graz is Harzl’s alma mater, he completed his PhD in Law at the University of Frankfurt. His research interests cover issues pertaining to international and EU law in the post-Soviet space as well as ethnic conflicts in the South Caucasus.
Alexandra Hofer
is Assistant Professor in Public International Law at Utrecht University School of Law, Department of International and European Law. She is a member of the Utrecht Centre for Regulation and Enforcement in Europe (renforce). She received her PhD in international law from Ghent University and is an affiliated member of the Ghent Rolin-Jaequemyns International Law Institute (grili).
Thomas Kruessmann
is Academic Director of the Master of Arts programme ‘International Corporate Compliance and Business Ethics’ at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow). In addition, he is co-ordinator of the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education Project ‘Modernisation of Master Programmes for Future Judges, Prosecutors, Investigators with respect to European Standard on Human Rights’ for Ukraine and Belarus with the University of Graz. As President of the Association of European Studies for the Caucasus, he devotes himself to European Studies in the wider Caucasus region, including by acting as Series Editor of the book series ‘European Studies in the Caucasus’. He is Founding Director of the Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies Centre at the University of Graz (2010–2015) and Visiting Professor at Kazan Federal University (2015–2016). Beyond the Caucasus, his research interests extend to issues of comparative, European and international criminal law, as well as corruption and compliance.
Natalia Leskina
is Doctoral Researcher at the Department of International Relations at Ural Federal University, Russia. Her research interest is higher education regionalism with a regional focus on the post-Soviet space.
is Head of Research for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at the European Neighbourhood Council (enc). His research deals with the post-Soviet space, particularly sociopolitical developments in Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Marazis is also Affiliated Researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (vub) and Associate Researcher for Europe-Central Asia Monitoring (eucam). Before joining enc, he worked as Junior Researcher and eucam Programme Officer for the Foundation for International Relations and Foreign Dialogue (fride), and as Project Manager for Eurasian Dialogue. Marazis holds a MLitt in Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asian Security Studies from the University of St. Andrews (Scotland) and an ma in Black Sea Cultural Studies from the International Hellenic University (Thessaloniki, Greece).
Igor Merheim-Eyre
works in the European Parliament as Head of Office of an mep. He focuses mainly on issues related to foreign policy, security and defence, and the EU’s relations with its Eastern neighbours. He is also Research Fellow at the Global Europe Centre (University of Kent), and within the Global Challenges Research Fund (gcrf) Comprehensive Capacity Building in Eastern Neighbourhood and Central Asia (compass) Project. Merheim-Eyre publishes regularly on issues related to wider European security. He received his PhD from the University of Kent in 2017, and has previously worked in international democracy support.
Elena Pavlova
is Associate Professor at St. Petersburg State University and Senior Researcher at the University of Tartu. She obtained her PhD from St. Petersburg State University in 2000. Her research interests include contemporary political philosophy, theory of international relations, Russian foreign policy and EU-Russian normative competition. She has published widely on these issues, including in the Journal of International Relations and Development, Problems of Post-Communism, Scando-Slavica and Perspectives on European Politics and Society.
Irina Petrova
is Postdoctoral Researcher at the gcrf compass project, School of Politics and International Relations, University of Kent. She holds a doctoral degree in Social Sciences from the University of Leuven. Previously, Petrova worked as Assistant at the ‘Master of European Studies’ programme at the University of Leuven, Adjunct Lecturer at the Vesalius College (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and Research Associate at the Brussels School of International
Olga Potemkina
is Head of the European Integration Studies at the Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences (ie ras). She graduated from the Faculty of History, Moscow State University (mgu), holds a PhD in history (1990) and is Doctor of Political Science (2013). Previously, she worked at the Institute of International Labour Movement (later the Institute of Comparative Political Studies), ras. Since 1994, she has been working at the Institute of Europe. Her teaching experience includes mgimo University, Faculty of International Relations, and Moscow State University, Faculty of World Politics. She is Board Member of the Russian Association of European Studies (aes) and Editorial Board Member of the journals Contemporary Europe (ie ras), Vestnik mgu: World Politics. Her main research areas are the European Union and Russia, European cooperation on internal security, migration processes in Europe, and integration processes in Europe.
Tatiana Romanova
is Associate Professor at St. Petersburg State University and at the Higher School of Economics. She obtained her PhD from St. Petersburg State University in 2002. She was Jean Monnet Chair holder in 2011 and Director of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at St. Petersburg State University in 2015. Her research interests include EU-Russia relations, European integration and Russian foreign policy. She has published widely on these issues, including in European Foreign Affairs Review, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, International Spectator, Europe-Asia Studies and Geopolitics.
Marco Siddi
is Senior Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, where he focuses primarily on EU-Russia relations and EU energy policy. He is also Visiting Professor at the University of Cagliari, and he regularly lectures at the Universities of Helsinki and Tampere. His publications include the monograph National Identities and Foreign Policy in the European Union (ecpr Press, 2017) and articles in various journals, including Europe-Asia Studies, Politics, Geopolitics, The International Spectator, Journal of Contemporary European
Niels Smeets
is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Leuven International and European Studies institute (lines), ku Leuven, Belgium. He holds a PhD in Social Sciences from ku Leuven on explaining Russia’s renewable energy policies. During his field research, he was Visiting Scholar at the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations, and the Institute of Europe, both of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow during the pivotal years 2014–2015. He has a multidisciplinary background, holding master’s degrees in Comparative and International Politics, Management, and Slavonic Studies. In this last field, he published the first Ukrainian grammar for Dutch speakers, as well as a dictionary. He served as Intern in the EU Commission Support Group for Ukraine, gaining firsthand experience in EU policy-making. Currently, he is Energy Policy Officer at the Belgian Federal Public Service (fps) Economy.
Domenico Valenza
is PhD Fellow at the United Nations University – Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (unu-cris) and at the Department of Political Science at Ghent University (Belgium). In his PhD research, he enquires into the role of culture in foreign affairs and analyses the EU’s and Russia’s cultural diplomacy discourses and practices towards the post-Soviet space. Valenza holds an ma in European Studies from Université Paris 8 Saint Denis and Université libre de Bruxelles, and an MSc in ‘Russia in Global Systems’ from King’s College London. Prior to joining unu-cris and Ghent University, he worked at No Peace Without Justice as Programme Officer and at the College of Europe, Bruges, as Senior Academic Assistant.
Tony van der Togt
is Associate Senior Research Fellow at the Russia Centre of the Clingendael Institute in The Hague, and Strategic Policy Adviser for the Europe Department at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After studying contemporary history in Amsterdam (Free University) and Nijmegen, he had a long career as a Dutch diplomat, dealing with Eastern Europe and Central Asia, in The Hague and in Moscow, Almaty and St. Petersburg. In 2013, he acted as Dutch Co-ordinator of the Netherlands-Russia bilateral year. He has published widely on EU-Russia relations, the EU’s Eastern Partnership, Dutch-Russian bilateral relations and the Eurasian Economic Union. He is also a regular contributor to a number of dialogue platforms with Russian and other international experts,
Peter Van Elsuwege
is Professor in EU Law and Jean Monnet Chair holder at Ghent University, where he is Co-director of the Ghent European Law Institute (geli). He is also Visiting Professor at the College of Europe (Natolin Campus) and Board Member of the Centre for the Law of EU External Relations (cleer) at the Asser Institute in The Hague. His research activities essentially focus on the law of EU external relations and EU citizenship. Specific attention is devoted to the legal framework of the relations between the European Union and its East European neighbours. He is, among others, the author of From Soviet Republics to EU Member States: A Legal and Political Assessment of the Baltic States’ Accession to the EU (Brill 2008) and Editor (together with R. Petrov) of the books Legislative Approximation and Application of EU Law in the Eastern Neighbourhood of the European Union: Towards a Common Regulatory Space? (Routledge 2014) and Post-Soviet Constitutions and Challenges of Regional Integration (Routledge 2018).
Sebastiaan Van Severen
is PhD Researcher in International Law at Ghent University and a member of the Ghent Rolin Jaequemyns International Law Institute (grili). He conducts research on themes of comparative international law, self-determination and nationhood, with a particular interest in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.