Alina Polyakova
David M. Rubenstein Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center on the United States and Europe
Alina Polyakova is the David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Foreign Policy program's Center on the United States and Europe and adjunct professor of European studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. She specializes in European politics, far-right populism and nationalism, and Russian foreign policy. Polyakova's recent book, "The Dark Side of European Integration" (ibidem-Verlag and Columbia University Press, 2015) examines the rise of far-right political parties in Western and Eastern Europe. She has also written extensively on Russian political warfare, Ukraine, and trans-Atlantic relations.
Prior to joining Brookings, she served as director of research and senior fellow for Europe and Eurasia at the Atlantic Council. She is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Swiss National Science Foundation senior research fellow. Polyakova's writings have appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The American Interest, as well as a number of academic journals and media outlets. She has also been a fellow at the Fulbright Foundation, Eurasia Foundation, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council, International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), and a Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Bern.
Polyakova holds a doctorate and master's in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor's in economics and sociology with highest honors from Emory University. She speaks Russian and German.
Alina Polyakova is the David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Foreign Policy program’s Center on the United States and Europe and adjunct professor of European studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. She specializes in European politics, far-right populism and nationalism, and Russian foreign policy. Polyakova’s recent book, “The Dark Side of European Integration” (ibidem-Verlag and Columbia University Press, 2015) examines the rise of far-right political parties in Western and Eastern Europe. She has also written extensively on Russian political warfare, Ukraine, and trans-Atlantic relations.
Prior to joining Brookings, she served as director of research and senior fellow for Europe and Eurasia at the Atlantic Council. She is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Swiss National Science Foundation senior research fellow. Polyakova’s writings have appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The American Interest, as well as a number of academic journals and media outlets. She has also been a fellow at the Fulbright Foundation, Eurasia Foundation, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council, International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), and a Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Bern.
Polyakova holds a doctorate and master’s in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelor’s in economics and sociology with highest honors from Emory University. She speaks Russian and German.
[Putin] sees a vacuum of power, for example in Syria where the U.S. didn’t have a strategy, and he sees an opportunity to reassert Russian influence and Russian power in the region...You could make the same argument about Ukraine. There was an opportunity that presented itself. He took a risk and it paid off...In broad terms, Putin has defined his legacy at this point as the Russian leader who has ‘brought Russia back up from its knees in the 1990s.'
[There is still a huge] information hole [about what was said at the Helsinki summit]...I do see it as in the purview of Congress to ask the administration to be much more clear about what took place.
[When it comes to Russian influence operations], there often is kind of a proxy lead actor, who is usually an oligarch close to the regime, that is given a project and he outsources portions of that project...I almost think of it as project management.
Pushing to amplify divisive issues, especially around race in the U.S., has been standard operating procedure for the Kremlin since the Soviet days...The surprising part is how little Russian linked groups are spending — which was also the case the IRA [Internet Research Agency] and how much better they’re getting at hiding their tracks...Whereas we are still stuck in 2016, the Russians have clearly moved on and developed new tools to obfuscate their activities.
Hosting Trump in Moscow gives Putin the home turf advantage...In Washington, Trump would be surrounded by more aides, media, and the entire policy audience. In Moscow, media can be controlled...Putin would have the upper hand as the host.
[While the administration] gets credit for compliance, clearly it was Congress pushing the administration’s hand [to pass the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act].