Tony Brenton

Sir Tony Brenton served as British ambassador to Moscow from 2004-2008. He previously served in Cairo and Brussels, and as Charge d’Affaires in Washington. He set up and led the Foreign Office unit that negotiated the Rio “Earth Summit” in 1992 and the first global agreement on climate change. He is author of "Historically Inevitable?: Turning Points of the Russian Revolution".

Pascal Boniface

Dr. Pascal Boniface is the founding director of the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs – IRIS, based in Paris. He is the Director of the quarterly journal “La Revue internationale et stratégique” (International and strategic review) since 1991, and the Editor of “L’Année stratégique” (Strategic Yearbook) since 1985. 

Alexandra Dienes

Dr. Alexandra Dienes is senior researcher at the Regional Office for Cooperation and Peace in Europe, a Vienna-based branch of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. She was born in Moscow and did her MA in Political Science at the Freie University Berlin (2012) and her PhD at the University of Amsterdam (2017). She specialises in foreign policy and political economy of Russia and the post-Soviet space.

Rüdiger Lüdeking

Rüdiger Lüdeking is a former German diplomat. He joined the Federal Foreign Office in 1980. In many of his assignments his focus was on multilateral affairs, East-West relations, European security and disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation issues. Ambassador Lüdeking served as Permanent Representative to the United Nations and to the other International Organizations in Vienna (2008-12).

Anatol Lieven (Moderator)

Dr. Anatol Lieven is the director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He was formerly a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar and in the War Studies Department of King’s College London. From 1985 to 1998, Lieven worked as a journalist in South Asia, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.