Leonid Volkov is the political director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, the leading organisation of Russian anti-Putin and anti-war resistance movement, founded by the late Alexei Navalny. He was campaign manager and chief of staff for Navalny’s Moscow mayoral campaign of 2013 and presidential campaign of 2018. Since 2019 he has to residea outside Russia. There are 11 politically motivated criminal cases against him initiated by Putin’s regime. In the fall semester 2024/25 he teaches a course on Russian politics as a visiting assistant professor at Wesleyan.
Anna Biryukova is the Head of Public Opinion Research at the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), Russia’s leading opposition organization, which Alexey Navalny founded. She has conducted independent surveys and polls, often under pressure from the Russian regime. Forced to leave Russia in 2019, she continues her work from exile in Lithuania, managing a team of interviewers and running nationwide polls crucial for ACF’s fight against the Putin regime. In the fall 24/25 semester, Anna is honoured to spend her time at Yale as a Yale World Fellow’24.
Event sponsored by the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Program.