Maria Snegovaya

Maria Snegovaya is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University. Her research examines Russia’s domestic and foreign policy, as well as the rise of populism and democratic backsliding in Europe, with particular attention to how elites and societies in Russia and East Central Europe have adapted to the sociopolitical and economic transformations following the end of communism. Her first book, When Left Moves Right: The Decline of the Left and the Rise of the Populist Right (Oxford University Press, 2024), was shortlisted for the APSA Luebbert Best Comparative Politics Book Award. Her second book, The Nomenklatura Strikes Back: Russia’s Foreign Policy and Nomenklatura Continuity, is forthcoming with Oxford University Press (expected late 2026). Her work has also appeared in West European Politics, PNAS Nexus, Democratization, Party Politics, Post-Soviet Affairs and the European Journal of International Security. She is a frequent commentator in leading outlets, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Foreign Affairs, Bloomberg, The Economist, and Foreign Policy.