Dr Nemirovskaya is a former art historian. In the late 1980s her kitchen became a “salon” for intellectuals concerned about the future development of Russia. In 1992 she co-created the School of Civic Education (Moscow School of Political Studies then). The School then developed into one of the foremost institutions in the field of civic society and civic freedoms. Drawing deeply on its sustained links with academic and scientific institutions and think tanks, it managed to bring the best in world experience to Russia and to expose over 25 thousand Russians to European traditions of democratic development and civic engagement. The ideas and understanding gained at SCE seminars are being shared and implemented throughout the wider region as empowered young leaders apply and disseminate knowledge, information and progressive ideas around them. Named a foreign agent by the Undesirable Organizations of the Russian government in 2014, the Moscow School now operates from abroad.

A graduate of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, Tatiana Glushkova has been engaged in human rights work since 2011. She represented victims of gravest and most systematic human rights violations in Russia, such as enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and torture in the North Caucasus, both before national courts and the ECHR. She also defended peaceful protesters, journalists, opposition politicians and human rights defenders persecuted by the authorities. Tatiana’s work on minority rights resulted in a landmarking judgment in which the ECHR had for the first time found a violation of the prohibition of discrimination because of a person’s gender identity. Recently, Tatiana has been heavily involved in defending Memorial in court proceedings against liquidation claims by the Russian authorities.
In 2022 Tatiana was named the Head of Advocacy and elected a Board Member of Memorial Human Rights Defence Centre, and NGO founded by the supporters of the liquidated Human Rights Centre “Memorial”

Joan Hoey is the Regional Director for Europe in Economist Intelligence’s Country Analysis division. She is an expert on European political economy, with a special interest in democracy, governance, political risk, global geopolitics and east European post-communist transition. Joan is the Editor of EIU's flagship annual Democracy Index, recognised by governments, international organisations, corporates and academia as a leading measure of global democracy. Before joining the Europe team at The Economist Group in 1995, Joan worked as a journalist covering the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the wars that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia.

Mr. Vladimir Milov is a Russian opposition politician, publicist, economist, and energy expert, and an economic and international affairs adviser to the Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, as well as Vice President of the Free Russia Foundation based in Washington D.C. In 1997-2002, Mr. Milov had worked with the Russian Government, including as Deputy Energy Minister in 2002. He was the author of concept of breaking up and unbundling Gazprom vetoed by Vladimir Putin. Later, Mr. Milov became one of the major public critics of Vladimir Putin, working closely with late opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, and later - with Alexey Navalny.

My name is Nato, I live in Moscow and I am a philosophy student. I come from a mixed background—my mother is Russian and my father is Georgian. My background influenced the theme of my scientific work, which is why I decided to explore the topic of ‘Russian idea’ in depth. How the country became more and more authoritarian and what arguments Russian anti-democrats offered—those were the questions I was preoccupied with. In my point of view, this ‘idea’ may be one of the possible reasons for the current struggles with democracy in Russia. I would like to share my experience in order to understand why anti-democratic values are supported by some people.