Valdai Club

Full Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Doctor of Historical Sciences; Professor; Academic Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences.

Editor-in-chief, “Vostok (Oriens)” journal (since 1998); Member, Science Council, Russian Foreign Ministry and the Russian Security Council; President, Center for Strategic and Political Studies (since 1991); Goodwill Ambassador for the Alliance of Civilizations by the UN Secretary General (since 2007).

Previous positions: Head, Arab countries Department, Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS (1984–1989); Deputy Director, Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS (1989–1994); Visiting Professor, American University, Cairo (1991); Head, Center for Arab Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS (1994–2009); Visiting Analyst, Abu Dhabi TV Satellite Channel, UAE (2001–2002); Visiting Professor, University of California in Berkeley (2003); Member, High Level Group, UN Alliance of Civilizations project (2005–2006); Founder and Chairman, Center for Arab and Islamic Studies (2006–2009).

Research interests: Islam; international relations; international security; regional studies (Middle East, Central Asia, South Caucasus); South Arabian studies; conflict management and resolution; ethnology; evolution of Islamic movements; South Arabian ethnography; conflicts among the CIS member-states.

Author of over 500 publications in Russian, English, French, Arabic and other languages dealing with the history of Asia, the Arab world, Central Asia and Caucasus, international relations, political science, Islamic studies, philology, conflict management and resolution.

Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club, Dean, Professor of the Faculty of Creative Industries at the National Research University – Higher School of Economics,  member of the Union of Writers


In 1985-1991, Andrey Bystritskiy was engaged in research as a Senior Fellow at the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences. He has been in the media industry since 1991, starting as the Head of the Audience Research Department of the All-Russia State Television and Radio Company (RTR), author and host of radio and television broadcasts. In 1993-1996, Andrey Bystritskiy headed sociological research at the Company. From 1996 to 1997, he was in charge of the "Society" Department at the Itogi (Russian Newsweek) magazine. In 1997-1998, Andrey Bystritskiy was Deputy Director General for Information at TV Tsentr. Between 1998 and 1999, he was the Producer of the Russian news service on BBC. In 1999, he joined the Organizing Committee of the Unofficial Moscow Festival as one of its Co-Chairs, he was also a member of the Editorial Board of the Moscow Alternative newspaper and Chairman of the Mayak State Radio Broadcasting Company (main information radio in Russia). In 2000, Bystritskiy became the Director General of the Vesti State Television Company (an entity of RTR). From 2000 to 2008, he was Deputy Director General of RTR and the Director of the Department of Information Programmes of the Russia TV. In 2000-2013 Bystritskiy was a member of the Board of Directors and Vice President of international broadcasting company Euronews. Between 2005 and 2007, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Apologia monthly magazine. From 2008 to 2014, he was the Chairman of the Voice of Russia State Radio Company (Russian international broadcaster in 44 languages).

Andrey Bystritskiy has been at the National Research University – Higher School of Economics since 2001, as a Dean of the Faculty of Creative Industries since 2014. Since 2008, he has been the head of the Council of the Heads of Government and Public Television and Radio Organizations of CIS Countries. Since 2014, Bystritskiy has been the Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club and the Chairman of the Public Supervisory Council of the Russian Ministry of Communications.

Andrey Bystritskiy is a Professor and PhD (Pedagogics, 1989). He is a member of the Union of Writers. In June 2007, he received the Order of Honour.

Andrey Bystritskiy is the author of books, including such works as Youth Subcultures and Russia's Intelligentsia During the Demise of the Soviet System (1991), and numerous publications in newspapers and magazines.

Research Director of the Valdai Discussion Club, Chairman, Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Editor-in-Chief, Russia in Global Affairs journal. 

Previous positions: Editor, then Senior Editor, Department for Broadcasting to Northern Europe, International Radio Moscow (Voice of Russia, 1990–1993); Correspondent, International Desk, Segodnya newspaper (1994–1997); Editor, International Desk, Vremya MN newspaper (1997–2000); Editor, International Desk and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Vremya Novostei newspaper (2000–2002).

Since 2020, he is the host of Mezhdunarodnoye Obozrenie (International Review) show at Russia-24 news channel.

Professor of Government and Russian Studies, Harvard University 

Past director of Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies; Co-chair of Working Group on the Future of Russian-American Relations; Has participated in the Valdai Discussion Club meetings since 2004.

Research interests: national and international politics of Russia and Eurasia. Books and articles include Transitional Citizens: Voters and What Influences Them in the New Russia (2000); Popular Choice and Managed Democracy (with Michael McFaul, 2003); The State after Communism (with Stephen Holmes, 2006); Yeltsin: A Life (2008); Leadership and the Politics of Modernization in Russia: The Challenges of Transformation (ed. by Piotr Dutkiewicz and Dmitri Trenin, 2011); Russia: What Everyone Needs to Know (2016); Everyone Loses: The Ukraine Crisis and the Ruinous Contest for Post-Soviet Eurasia (with Samuel Charap, 2017).

Piotr Dutkiewicz is Professor of Political Science and the Director of the Center for Governance and Public Policy at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He was Editor-in-chief of a 19-volume series on Local and Regional Development in Poland (1986-1989) and editor (or co-editor) of 12 other books, the most recent of which are: Piotr Dutkiewicz, Tom Casier, Jan Aart Scholte, Hegemony and World Order Reimagining Power in Global Politics, Routledge, 2020; Piotr Dutkiewicz, Richard Sakwa, Fyodor Lukyanov, (eds.) Eurasia on the Edge, Rowman & Littlefield, 2018; Vladimir Popov & Piotr Dutkiewicz (eds.) Mapping a New World Order: The Rest Beyond the West, Edgar Edward Publishing, 2017; Piotr Dutkiewicz & Richard Sakwa (eds), Social History of Post-Communist Russia, Routledge (London & New York), 2016; Piotr Dutkiewicz & Richard Sakwa (eds.), Eurasian Integration: The View from Within, Routledge, 2015; Piotr Dutkiewicz & Richard Sakwa, 22 Ideas To Fix the World, New York University Press, 2013; Piotr Dutkiewicz & Vladislav Inozemtsev (eds.), Democracy versus Modernization: A Dilemma for Russia and for the World, Routledge, 2012; Piotr Dutkiewicz & Dmitri Trenin (eds.) Russia: The Challenges of Transformation, NYU Press, 2011; Piotr Dutkiewicz and Andrei Margolin (eds.), New Technologies in Public Administration as Reflected by the Canadian and Russian Experience, Moscow Governance University Press, 2013.

He has received two doctorates honoris causa (2006 and 2007). Member of the Valdai Club.

Professor, Fudan University; Fellow of Beijing Clib for International Dialogue

Academic Supervisor of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at the National Research University Higher School of Economics; Honorary Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy

Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Russia in Global Affairs magazine. Co-founder of the Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences. Author and editor of more than 25 books and around 500 articles.

Member of the Academic Council of the Ministry of Foregn Affairs of the Russian Federation; Member of the Academic and Advisory Council, Russian Security Council; Member of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights under the President of Russia. In 1990s he was the member of the Presidential Council of Russia. Sergei Karaganov was a member of the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on European Security as a Common Project under the OSCE (2014–2015).

Scientific interests: Soviet/Russian foreign and defense policies, international security, Greater Eurasia , USA and Europe, new global problems.

Research Director, German-Russian Forum.

Career involved work as Project Researcher for the Federal Institute for East European and International Studies, Cologne (1978–1990); Senior Analyst at the Research Institute of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Munich (1982–1994); Consultant, RAND Corporation, USA (1985–1989); Program Director for Russia and Eurasia (Berthold-Beitz Center) at the German Council on Foreign Relations, Bonn/Berlin (1994–2012); Senior Advisor Russia for Wintershall Holding (2012–2015); Research Director, Project manager at the German-Russian Forum (2012–2015); Senior Advisor Europa for Gazprom (from 2015). 

He was awarded with the German Federal Cross of Merit (2003) and he holds honorary professorships at the Moscow State Institute for International Relations and Higher School of Economics, Moscow. He is member of the Petersburg Dialogue (German-Russian civil society forum); Board member of Yalta European Strategy (YES); Board member of the German-Ukrainian Forum; cofounder of the Berlin Eurasia Club (Kazakhstan). 

Since 2015 –Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club; since 2023 – Director General  of the Russian International Affairs Council; Associate Professor at MGIMO MFA of Russia.

Previously, he held the position of Director of Programmes of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), responsible for substantive work: research, educational and publishing projects, relations with government agencies and the media.

Before joining RIAC, Dr. Timofeev was Head of Analytical Monitoring Centre at MGIMO University (2009–2011). He has been Associate Professor at MGIMO University since 2006.

Dr. Timofeev is the author and co-author of more than 80 publications, issued in Russian and foreign academic press. He is a member of the editorial board at Comparative Politics journal.