I am a Postdoctoral Fellow in Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service, a Senior Fellow with the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a Fellow at the Illiberalism Studies Program at George Washington University. I am also a member of PONARS Eurasia. I earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University.
My research interests include public opinion, political economy and foreign policy. I explore the ongoing democratic backsliding and re-autocratization in postcommunist Europe and the tactics used by Russian actors and proxies who circulate disinformation to exploit these dynamics in the region. I also study Russia’s domestic and foreign policy. My work has been published in numerous political science journals, including West European Politics, Party Politics, Post-Soviet Affairs, Journal of Democracy, and Democratization. My dissertation-based book has been published with Oxford University Press in January 2024.
My research has been referenced by the New York Times, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, and BBC. I have also written for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, the New Republic and others. Throughout my career I have collaborated with multiple U.S. research centers and think tanks to develop policy recommendations designed to address the challenges of democratic backsliding. These include the Brookings Institution, the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Freedom House among others.