Anna Arutunyan is a Russia-American journalist, analyst and author. Born in Moscow, she was raised and educated in the United States before returning to Russia as a journalist. She covered two decades of Russian politics, first as reporter and editor at The Moscow News, then as a correspondent and analyst. She has served as Russia's senior analyst for the International Crisis Group, and only left Russia after the February 2022 invasion. She has a wide range of contacts in Russian politics and business and worked on the ground in both Crimea and the Donbas after the outbreak of the undeclared conflict in 2014. She is now Associate Director of the consultancy Mayak Intelligence and a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center. Her articles have appeared regularly in USA Today, Foreign Affairs, and other publications worldwide. She is the author of several books on Russia, including The Putin Mystique (Skyscraper), translated into over a dozen languages, and the latest on Russia's war in Ukraine, Hybrid Warriors: Proxies, Freelancers and Moscow's Struggle for Ukraine (Hurst).

Professor Mark Galeotti is one of the foremost Russia-watchers today, who travels there regularly to teach, lecture, talk to his contacts, and generally watch the unfolding story of the Putin era. Based in London, he is Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Institute of International Relations Prague, having previously headed its Centre for European Security, and was before then Professor of Global Affairs at NYU. A prolific author on Russia and security affairs, he frequently acts as consultant to various government, commercial and law-enforcement agencies.